CAREN Launch Event
Representatives of the CAREN project partners, senior EC and ministry officials, technical experts, network users and other stakeholders convened on 21 September 2010 at the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences in Bishkek to celebrate the formal inauguration of the Central Asia Research and Education network (CAREN) which became operational in July 2010.
This launch event marked Central Asia’s coming of age in the family of regional data-communications networks.
Commission representatives Chantal Hebberecht, HoD in Kyrgyzstan and William Hanna HoU D2 (the latter representing AIDCO HQ managing CAREN) both stressed that CAREN will help bridge the digital divide between Central Asia and
Europe. Indeed, it not only provides high-speed connections between scientists across Central Asia, thanks to the interconnection with its pan-European counterpart GÉANT, it is also a gateway for global collaboration.
Delegates had the opportunity to visit the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences (CAIAG) in Bishkek, where they could see first-hand the benefits of the highspeed CAREN links enabling seismologists to access seismic data from monitoring stations in "near-real" time. This information can then be exchanged with colleagues across the region, as well as with scientists at the German Research
Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) to improve hazard assessment and effective disaster risk management – a life-saving initiative in this earthquake-prone part
of the world.
Following the CAREN launch the second meeting of the CAREN Steering Group and the fifth CAREN EXCO meeting as well as an IPv6 Training Workshop took place.
Click here to see the agenda of the Launch event.
Click here to view the press release issued by the European Commission.
Click here to view the media coverage of the event.
To view images of the Launch event, please follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/r.f.janz/CAREN5# (images courtesy of Robert Janz)
