Asia-Pacific research network gets €18m fund

EC and Asian partners tie-up TIEN3 deal

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in Telecoms, 22nd February 2008 11:32 GMT

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The European Commission yesterday agreed to help fund the next stage in the development of a trans-Eurasia academic network.

It said it made the decision to stump up €12m to help develop the new TEIN3 research and education network, off the back of the success of the TEIN2 project.

An additional €6m will be provided by the Asian National Research Education Networks, with TEIN3 initially planned to link China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Australia.

The TEIN3 network will be operated by the research networking body DANTE, which also runs the pan-European network, GÉANT2. The upgrade will link the 11 countries and researchers in 4,000 institutions at speeds of up to 2.5Gbs and is expected to run until 2011.

DANTE managing director Dai Davies said: "It will enable us to build on the achievements of TEIN2 and create an even faster, more comprehensive network that links the researchers of the region to their peers around the world.

"Global challenges such as climate change, sustainable development, and medical research require truly global collaboration – TEIN3 will help researchers make major progress through working with their international peers."

The TEIN2 network first received funding from the European Union in 2004. It was created to provide internet connection to universities, research centres, and academic institutions with the intention of aiding international research collaboration.

DANTE said tthe TEIN3 tender will officially kick off late next month.