Research and education increasingly depend on fast, reliable, and secure networks. The volume of data produced in fields such as artificial intelligence, climate modelling, and genomics is growing at an exponential rate. Without advanced networking, the ability of researchers and students to collaborate internationally would be severely constrained. Networks must not become the bottleneck that limits discovery, innovation, or education.
Funet as part of Europe’s research infrastructure
These efforts are not isolated. National research networks, technology partners, and international organisations together build an infrastructure that no single country could achieve alone. This collaborative model ensures that European researchers and students can access world-class computing resources and share data on a global scale.
LUMI and the next generation of AI
Looking ahead, the upcoming supercomputer LUMI-AI and European AI Factories, including the LUMI AI Factory, will require even faster and more scalable connections. In practice, data may be stored in one country while computation happens in another. High-capacity networks make this seamless and transparent for the researcher, transforming Europe into a unified environment for large-scale science and innovation. This vision will be taken even further by GÉANT’s new hyperconnectivity infrastructure for EuroHPC, which will link Europe’s supercomputers, AI Factories, and quantum facilities into federated, ultra-high bandwidth network capable of terabit-per-second data exchanges.
Breaking speed records
The vision has already been put to the test. In May 2025, CSC, SURF, and Nokia successfully tested a record-breaking, quantum-secure optical link between Amsterdam and Kajaani. The connection, spanning more than 3,500 kilometers, reached a speed of 1.2 terabits per second. On the longest route tested – 4,700 kilometers via Norway – the teams achieved 1 terabit per second, equivalent to simultaneously streaming 200,000 HD movies.
These tests used five production research networks (SURF in the Netherlands, NORDUnet, Sunet in Sweden, SIKT in Norway, and Funet in Finland) to carry both real scientific datasets and synthetic data. They proved that large-scale, secure, and high-performance transfers are not only possible but already within reach for the European research community.
The societal benefits of these developments are also substantial. High-speed, secure networks enable the sharing of massive datasets across borders, from climate and environmental data to genomics and AI training corpora. They strengthen Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem by making collaboration faster, more reliable, and more resilient.
By combining national expertise, international collaboration, and cutting-edge technology, Finland is helping to shape the future of research networking in Europe.
CSC is proud to host TNC26 in Helsinki in 2026.
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