Stories

Connectivity boost accelerates EU-Japanese science collaborations*

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

Over 50 million researchers, academics and students across Europe and Japan are set to benefit from a direct 20Gbps (gigabit per second) connectivity injection into the pan-European GÉANT network, celebrated at the launch event of the upgraded Japanese Science Information Network (SINET5) in Tokyo last month. The capacity boost came in response to the increasing …

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The NREN’s relationships with governments and ISPs: An expert’s opinion

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

By Duncan Martin NRENs exist to meet the connectivity and related needs of the universities and research institutions of their countries.  But who determines these needs and who judges whether they are being met? If most of these institutions are essentially sub-departments of the State, to the extent that their procurement of Internet services is …

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African NRENs and their role in addressing financial stress of universities and research institutions

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

That many African higher learning and research institutions are facing funding problems is not news.  Most universities across Africa are struggling to operate to their full potential due to underfunding, a development that has in some cases forced universities to resort to hiking fees already considered high for many an African student. The raising of  …

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Lesotho rolls up sleeves for NREN formation

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

A task force comprising ICT directors from seven higher learning and/or research institutions has been established to fast track the formation of a National Research and Education Network (NREN) in Lesotho. The “Task Team” as it is being called, was proposed during a ‘Lesotho NREN sensitisation workshop’ that was held in the capital Maseru on …

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From an end user’s mouth: Zambian PhD student explains how she benefited from a research and education network

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

Lydia Chabala, an soil scientist from Zambia can still not predict the amount of time and money it would have taken and cost her to complete her PhD research if she had not been introduced to the Zambia Research and Education Network (ZAMREN)’s high speed internet connectivity. Chabala’s research focused on soil-environmental modeling for digital …

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ZAMREN demonstrates NREN meaningful synergies with public and private connectivity infrastructure owners

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

One of the prominent challenges most African National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) are struggling to deal with is the lack of ownership of connectivity infrastructure mainly due to funding hiccups. Most of these NRENs are however operating alongside public and private telecommunication companies and organisations that own infrastructure such as fiber optic  backbones that …

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IST-Africa 2016 preaches open innovation, collaboration

Stories / By / August 26, 2016

The eleventh edition of the IST-Africa conference series, IST-Africa 2016, was held in Durban, South Africa from 11-13 May 2016 with organisers and delegates at the conference placing more emphasis on the value of open innovation and collaboration among researchers. The conference opened on Wednesday, 11 May, with a high level panel discussion whose participants …

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New UbuntuNet Alliance Communications Officer lobbies for support from NREN Members

Members, Stories / By / September 21, 2016

The newly recruited UbuntuNet Alliance Communications Officer, Hastings Ndebvu, has appealed to the Alliance’s NREN Members to supply his office with research and education inventions and innovations happening in their communities to enable the office enhance the visibility of Africa’s research and education networking in the global research and education community. The new officer was …

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Malawi President appointed Champion of Higher Education in Africa

Education, Stories / By / September 21, 2016

As part of its drive to engage influential bodies and actors to help it lobby for policy support and investment in Higher Education in Africa, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) on July 6, 2015 installed Malawi President, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika as the Champion for Higher education in Africa. RUFORUM …

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Tusu receives the NI&I Service Award

Certificates, Stories / By / September 21, 2016

Eng. Dr Francis “Tusu” Tusubira, former CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance received the Network Information and Infrastructure Service Award (NI&I) Service Award 2015. This was announced on 4 June 2015 at the African Internet Summit in Tunis, Tunisia. Tusu, as he is popularly known in the community, holds a PhD (Southampton, UK), an M.Sc.E (New Brunswick, …

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