For many centuries the Silk Road was the long-distance route for trade and communications across Central Asia, linking Europe and Asia. Today, the Central Asia Research and Education Network (CAREN) is upgrading this route to a 21st-century high-speed Internet highway for research centres and educational institutions throughout the region.
 
Co-founded by the European Union and launched in 2010, CAREN interconnects researchers, academics and students at over 500 institutions in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, with Uzbekistan also a candidate country.
 
Thanks to the interconnection with its pan-European counterpart GÉANT, CAREN allows seamless collaboration between Central Asia and Europe, providing the region with a gateway to global research collaboration. 
CAREN builds on the achievements of the Silk project which pioneered research networking in the Caucasus and Central Asia.