EUMEDCONNECT2 Backgrounder
What is EUMEDCONNECT2?
EUMEDCONNECT2 is a high-capacity IP-based data-communications network serving the research and education (R&E) community across the Mediterranean. Offering a direct link to GÉANT2, its pan-European multi-gigabit counterpart, EUMEDCONNECT2 allows approximately 2 million users in around 700 institutions across North Africa and the Middle East to collaborate with their peers at more than 3000 research and education establishments in Europe. Via GÉANT2’s connections to other regions of the world, EUMEDCONNECT2 provides the Mediterranean with a gateway to global research collaboration.
Launched in November 2008, EUMEDCONNECT2 builds on the success of the predecessor project, EUMEDCONNECT, which ran from 2001 to the end of 2007 under the European Commission’s Euro-Mediterranean Information Society (EUMEDIS) Programme. EUMEDCONNECT validated the approach of building regional backbones and interconnecting them to GÉANT2, and has thus been ground-breaking for European R&E initiatives to support other world regions such as Latin America (ALICE project) and Asia-Pacific (TEIN2 and TEIN3 projects).
Thanks to the ongoing interest of the European Commission and the commitment of the project partners, continuation of the network and a smooth transition to EUMEDCONNECT2 have been ensured. EUMEDCONNECT2 maintains in a more cost-effective way the high bandwidth connectivity established by its predecessor and continues to serve the growing number of projects for which the network has become an essential infrastructure.
The European Commission is contributing €4m towards EUMEDCONNECT2 (representing around half the cost), with the remaining costs being met by the Mediterranean partners. The project will run until late 2010.
What are the benefits of EUMEDCONNECT2?
EUMEDCONNECT and its successor have facilitated regional research networking and promotes social cohesion and development.
With the support of the Mediterranean partners and their governments, DANTE – the not-for-profit organisation that coordinates EUMEDCONNECT2 and GÉANT2 - and the national research and education networks (NRENs) have been able to overcome local difficulties such as poor infrastructure or monopoly telecom providers.
Enabled by this state-of-the-art data-communications network infrastructure, many projects are bringing researchers in the Mediterranean into close collaboration with their counterparts in neighbouring countries and throughout Europe, contributing significantly to social integration. Many of the applications are also of direct benefit to the general population, affecting high-impact areas such as health and education, and contributing significantly to social cohesion and development in the region, as illustrated below.
Who is involved in EUMEDCONNECT2?
The EUMEDCONNECT2 Mediterranean partners are Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.
Other NRENs in the Mediterranean region can collaborate with EUMEDCONNECT2 partners via their direct GÉANT2 links.
The EUMEDCONNECT2 project is co-ordinated by DANTE, a not-for-profit organisation that also operates regional networking projects in other parts of the world.
Supporting DANTE in the project are the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of Cyprus (CyNet), France (RENATER), Greece (GRNET), Italy (Consortium GARR) and Spain (RedIRIS).
EUMEDCONNECT2 Facts
- Provides high-capacity Internet connectivity for academic and scientific collaborations
- Supports a community of 2 million users across the southern Mediterranean
- Links directly to GÉANT2, creating a potential user base of more than 35 million
- Operates at speeds of up to 155 Mbps
- Extends regional connectivity from two network hubs - in Catania (Sicily) and Nicosia (Cyprus) - to connect seven countries across the southern and eastern Mediterranean
EUMEDCONNECT2 Success Stories
EUMEDCONNECT2 success stories include:
- Saving lives through groundbreaking drug discovery
High-speed networks and the huge data-managing capabilities of distributed (grid) computing are being used to accelerate the screening and study of drugs against malaria and avian flu.
Research teams in Italy and Egypt are jointly looking for drug-based alternatives to blood transfusion, currently the principal treatment for the blood disorder thalassaemia, to minimise the risk of transmitting diseases.
- Facilitating e-learning in medical training
EUMEDCONNECT2 and GÉANT2 support time-saving and cost-effective medical training across Europe and the Mediterranean. Health professionals can attend virtual training sessions, share best practise, particularly with regard to clinical protocols, and participate in multi-party discussions and scientific workgroup meetings via video-conferencing.
- Providing broader and innovative access to education
Against the backdrop of limited mobility and a rapidly expanding student population in many Mediterranean countries, ICT-enabled distance learning is fast becoming an accepted method of providing broader access to and delivering education across the region. A reliable network connection enables students to enrol ‘virtually’ and attend lectures remotely, overcoming geographical barriers to education.
- Contributing to sustainable development in the Mediterranean
The existence of powerful e-infrastructure tools enables scientists in the southern Mediterranean countries to engage in data-intensive climate research and climate change impact studies and thus to formulate recommendations. These in turn allow policy-makers to respond to global challenges, whilst addressing local concerns.
- Supporting grid-based computing applications
EUMEDGRID - the first distributed (grid) computing infrastructure in the region - has been established thanks to the high capacity links provided by EUMEDCONNECT2 and its predecessor network. Various grid applications have been deployed, including collaborative modelling in water purification studies, bandwidth-hungry climate research, and the computer-intensive reconstruction of musical sounds of ancient Mediterranean instruments.
