The new GÉANT Association Strategy 2026-2030 sets out a clear vision for the Association’s future: Powering knowledge for Europe. It defines three strategic goals: strengthening physical and diverse human networks, creating scalable and innovative digital services that integrate emerging technology to address community priorities, and building a sustainable financial model that allows the Association to continue its core operations, expand to new markets and users, and thrive in a rapidly changing world. It maps out a course of transformation to reach these goals for the Association through to 2030.
The strategy is supported by the Strategy Framework, which elaborates on how the strategy will be executed across the Association steered by Guiding Principles that act as the lens through which decisions are taken, and collaboration models are assessed. The Guiding Principles are: member-centred; innovation; scalability; financial logic; proactive; impact.
The Strategy Framework also covers two important pieces of the Association’s future direction: the commitment to deliver high-value, scalable and diversified services that meet the evolving needs of the community while maintaining financial sustainability (Strategic Service Portfolio); and a broader and more dynamic partnership model to expand the Association’s engagement ecosystem and continue to act as Europe’s trusted infrastructure (Engagement and Partnerships). These two strategic ambitions will be supported by a set of Enabling Strategies for the GÉANT organisation: Finance and Operations, People and Culture, Partner Relations, Security, and Communications.
Together, these documents form a coherent whole, designed to guide the work for GÉANT and its member NRENs, and to inform the GÉANT organisation’s roadmaps and annual plans.
To mark the launch of the new strategy, we sat down with Lise Fuhr, CEO of GÉANT, and Gilles Massen, CEO of Restena (NREN in Luxembourg) and Chair of the GÉANT Board, to hear what it means for GÉANT and for the membership, how we got here and what comes next.
Before we get into the how, let’s start with the what. What is your vision for GÉANT under this new strategy?
Building this new strategy has been a real collective effort. Tell us more about how you brought people along with you in this process.
L: For me, it was essential that the whole membership was involved, through the General Assembly meetings, infoshares, and questionnaires to our members. But we also worked internally, running multiple iterations within each team and across the GÉANT organisation as a whole. A strategy is only as strong as its implementation, and that means you need to bring people along and genuinely listen to them, because they are the ones working on our infrastructure and services every day. Inevitably, not everyone will see their specific topic reflected directly in the strategy, but I hope both members and staff feel they have contributed to it. It was written by a small team, but it was tested many times across the community and the organisation.
G: I agree that involving the whole organisation has been the real strength of this process – involving the membership and the board was the obvious step. Keeping the staff involved and focused throughout the implementation as well will be essential.
Speaking of the GÉANT membership – there is so much diversity across the community. How do you build a strategy that is ambitious enough to drive change, but still grounded enough to hold across the different national contexts?
G: Building and executing a strategy in our environment requires two elements: a non-negotiable core part that creates value for each member, and a second part that builds on the diversity, on activities that are not common to all members, and is more forward looking. Especially the latter is based on helping each other, including supporting those who are earlier on the journey and more experienced on certain topics. It has always been a crucial part of how our community works and brings real value to both the strategy and the members. Nevertheless, balancing the parts is key, not forgetting that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We learn from each other and we improve together.
L: Indeed, creating value for each other is fundamental. The strategy centres on our networks, both the infrastructure and the human network, which bind us together as a strong community that helps each other. We need to continue building that strong cohesion. Our diversity is our strength, but nurturing it is not a given – it takes awareness and real attention. Balance means allowing for differences without losing sight of what holds us together. Trust and mutual understanding are what bind us, even across the diversity.
Transformation is a word we hear often. What does it actually mean, in practice, for GÉANT, and how will you know when it is happening?
L: Transformation has to happen at two levels – processes and culture. Internally, we have already begun restructuring: creating hubs that leverage our strengths and making processes more flexible, scalable, and fit for the future. We have also set up a Transformation Working Group to work across the different streams and to define what transformation looks like in practice throughout the organisation. Transformation in the interaction at the membership level is ultimately a job for the Board, but my role is to work closely with them to make sure the community can see and feel this work progressing. No transformation will happen overnight – if we achieve it over a couple of years, that is a real success.
G: Transformation over a couple of years means that we are following where we need to go. The strategy gives the direction we have committed to.
We often hear that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. In this specific case, how do you see organisational culture as a key element to work with?
L: Culture starts at the top. If you want to shift culture, you need to consult the whole organisation, but you also need leadership to set strategic direction, or it will not hold. Leadership has to take responsibility for the culture it wants to see; without that, it will not carry through to the rest of the organisation. It is, fundamentally, a collaborative effort.
G: You cannot mandate culture – it simply does not work that way. But it is essential that the culture inside the organisation supports a common reference point that is grounded in the values that are core to the entire NREN community.
And from the Board’s perspective, what does this strategy mean for the member NRENs, and how do you see them contributing to its success over the next five years?
G: For the membership, the strategy serves as both a reminder and an encouragement. A reminder of the core tasks – supporting the community, building on the collaboration that has brought us here over many years – and an encouragement not to stand still, because the world is continuously evolving. Expectations change, environments change, and we cannot afford to simply do the same things indefinitely. GÉANT means something different to each member – for a smaller NREN like mine, Restena, the strategy opens up opportunities in areas they are not yet involved in. Even topics outside our current scope matter, because they represent a path forward. A large NREN might have a very different expectation. The diversity of how members experience this strategy is itself part of what makes it valuable.
L: The strategy is designed to allow for this evolution – in how we work as an organisation and as a community. It is meant to involve all of us. The way we collaborate and where we want to go together needs to keep evolving.
Now that the strategy is live, what are your top priorities for the rest of the year?
L: Three things stand out. First, financial sustainability – the work on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and diversifying our revenue streams, including the significant opportunity I see in enhancing the services we deliver today, particularly in identity and access and in education, and moving further up the stack. Second, new partnerships – I am keen to see how relationships with organisations like ISOC, ICANN, IETF, UNICEF, and other institutions working with internet and technology can strengthen our community. Third, continuing to build resilience into our core network, embracing emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, quantum internet, time and frequency services and cable sensing. The strategy gives us a direction that is clear enough to understand where we are heading, but the flexibility of annual prioritisation is essential in a world that changes as fast as ours does.
G: Proving that the core network delivers and is ready for the future, especially through the EuroHPC Hyperconnectivity project. European partnerships and financial sustainability are the other priorities: securing the visibility and support we need to remain strong. It is hard to be precise, though, considering how the pace at which the world is changing – in three months, the picture could look quite different.
L: Flexibility and the ability to respond to a fast-changing world is itself a priority. Geopolitical developments have a direct impact on our community. Staying alert and adaptable is our main mantra and part of that means demonstrating our value to the European Commission, showing how GÉANT supports their objectives and strengthens Europe, and being a trusted partner not just today but into the future. And we must not lose sight of how we support and deliver value to all members, also those who are outside the EU27.
What is a tangible impact that you expect this strategy to have on the community over the next five years?
L: That GÉANT is reinforced as a trusted partner for the European Commission and recognised for strengthening Europe’s digital independence and its capacity to address digital challenges. That we remain on top of technological developments and continue to be the preferred platform for our members, delivering real value to them, their users, and all of Europe. And that we do this with an outward-looking mindset: a strong Europe does not close in on itself; it collaborates with the rest of the world.
G: Reinvigorated collaboration and a reminder of what we can build, without undue dependency. The strategy-building process itself showed what is possible. It required everyone to listen to each other, and in doing so it deepened our mutual understanding. I also expect us to grow into new areas of activity, in domains where GÉANT members are the natural partners. Where exactly we will land remains to be seen, but the strategy brings us closer together, and that in itself is a significant impact.
What do you personally take away from this experience?
L: It is always valuable to pause and reflect on what we do, where we want to go, and how to get there as a community, as NRENs, and as GÉANT as an organisation. The whole process gave me a unique insight into how different NRENs work that I would not have gained any other way.
G: A sense of pride – you could even say undeserved on my part, because so many people contributed to this process. But we as a community have shown that we can do this, in spite of our diversity and, in many ways, because of it.
Read the GÉANT Association Strategy 2026-2030 on the GÉANT website.
