EAST Meets WEST with the creation of the TEIN2 network for South East Asia

East will soon meet West with the creation of the first pan-Asian research and education network, which will be directly connected to Europes GEANT2 network. The connection to GEANT2 will help provide the Asian countries with a gateway for global research collaboration.

The Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN) initiative was as an outcome of the ASEM (Asia-Europe) Meeting in 2000 between EU Member States and Asian partners to improve research networking between Europe and Asia. An initial link between France and Korea has been operational since November 2001 and is used by over 250 institutions worldwide for research collaborations.
For the next phase, called TEIN2, the European Unions EuropeAid Co-operation Office is contributing up to 10 million Euro toward the costs of connecting partners and the project will run until the end of 2007. The Asian partners that are eligible to join the project are Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
David West, Project Manager at DANTE for TEIN2 said TEIN2 is set to transform the connectivity available for collaborative research within Asia and provide direct links with Europe. We expect the recently announced TEIN2 connectivity tender to be keenly contested.
The creation of TEIN2 follows a successful feasibility study, which examined the current telecoms infrastructure and the networking needs of the partners.,This research highlighted the digital divide that exists within the region. Some partners, like Korea, already have advanced national networks, whilst others, such as Thailand and Vietnam, are still in their infancy. TEIN2 will even-out such disparity, with a cohesive approach to regional networking. The project will stimulate the growth of less developed partners, who are increasingly focused on improving their national networks, so that they better benefit from TEIN2. Chalermpol Charnsripinyo, spokesman for the Thai National Research and Education Network, ThaiREN, said The current inter-connectivity amongst these countries is still insufficient to support research and education activities. The network provided by the TEIN2 project will be able to support current research activities and enhance international research collaboration in the future.
The success of research networking in Europe shows benefits are derived by society as a whole by providing support to research innovation. The European Union is keen to fund the transfer of this approach to stimulate development in other regions. This benefits the regions concerned by increasing local collaboration, stimulating exchange of ideas and developing joint initiatives. It also benefits Europe by providing a powerful communications channel between large - and hitherto mutually isolated - communities of academic experts. Ultimately, research is becoming a global activity, and initiatives such as TEIN2 will ensure European researchers are provided with the world's best facilities to support their participation in global research projects. TEIN2 follows the successful European model for research networking exported to other world regions, including Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East via the ALICE and EUMEDCONNECT projects.
The TEIN2 network will be managed by DANTE, the research networking organisation which currently operates projects in Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. Working in collaboration with DANTE are RENATER, SURFnet and UKERNA, the National Research and Education Networks of France, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, respectively.
DANTE is now announcing a call for tenders to Telecoms providers. Expressions of interest must be submitted to DANTE by 8th January. More information can be found at www.tein2.net. The network is planned to start in late 2005.
For further information, please contact:
Simon Watts,Tel: [phone],Fax: [phone],Email: [e-mail] TEIN2:,The TEIN2 project will create a regional research and education network within Asia. Direct connectivity to the pan-European GEANT2 network will allow unprecedented Asian-European research collaboration. The following partners are eligible to join the project: Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The project is jointly funded by the European Union and the project partners, and will run until the end of 2007. European NREN partners in the project are RENATER (France), SURFnet (The Netherlands) and UKERNA (United Kingdom). The TEIN2 network will be operational in late 2005.
,About DANTE: ,DANTE is a non-profit organisation whose primary mission is to plan, build and manage research and education networks on behalf of Europes National Research and Education Networks. Established in 1993, DANTE has been fundamental to the success of pan-European research and education networking. DANTE is currently building GEANT2, which will upgrade the GEANT network and will continue to provide the data communications infrastructure essential to the success of many research projects in Europe.
DANTE is involved in initiatives worldwide to interconnect countries in other regions to one another and to GEANT. DANTE is currently managing initiatives focused on the Mediterranean, Latin American and Asia-Pacific regions through the EUMEDCONNECT, ALICE and TEIN2 projects respectively., ,More information from:,http://www.tein2.net,http://www.dante.net

Keywords

• Research network and collaboration