Collaboration of national research and education networking organisations (NRENs) with commercial companies and local authorities in providing wireless network access was the topic of a discussion at the TERENA General Assembly meeting in Bucharest on 22-23 October 2009. The main decisions in the meeting, which was hosted by RoEduNet, the Romanian national member organisation of TERENA, concerned financial matters.

TERENA Treasurer Lajos Bálint presented the Executive Committee's proposal for the 2010 budget, as well as a three-year financial prognosis. In contrast with the anticipated deficit in 2009, the next three years are expected to produce small financial surpluses. After some discussion, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the proposed budget. Because of current financial problems of some TERENA members caused by the worldwide economic crisis, it was agreed not to raise the membership fees, despite ongoing inflation.

For the first time in six years, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA) has a new president. Dorte Olesen (UNI·C, Denmark) handed over the role to Janne Kanner (CSC/Funet, Finland) following his election during a TERENA General Assembly meeting last week, Thursday 11 June 2009.

Speaking in recorded interviews, the former and new presidents expressed their views about the association’s achievements and future goals.

As the TERENA Networking Conference wound down to its fourth and final day, participants were treated to various presentations that illustrated how robust technology can result in more possibilities for mobile computing, identity federations and web services.

The intricacies of planning a major research network and of understanding evidence for global climate change were the topics of the plenary session at TNC 2009 yesterday, Wednesday 10 June.

“Thanks for keeping our science in business by keeing the data flowing,” began Stefan Rahmstorf of Potsdam University. He presented an overview of evidence for anthropogenic climate change and said that recent observations show that earlier climate change predictions were too optimisitic. Even if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow, atmospheric warming cannot be reversed, only slowed and possibly stopped, he said.

An invitation to participate in a green computing project was issued by Bill St. Arnaud of CANARIE during the TNC 2009 plenary session yesterday, Tuesday 9 May. He gave an overview of evidence for global climate change and the reductions in carbon dioxide emissions that have been recommended in order to slow the rate of change enough so that we have time to adapt. “This will affect research networking along with every other aspect of life and society,” he said.

The high energy demand of ICT departments in research universities makes them vulnerable to impending policies and regulations that may impose penalties on heavy carbon emitters. But Bill St. Arnaud said there are opportunities in this situation too. The trade in carbon offsets is expected to become a 645 billion dollar industry in the near future and the research and education community could benefit from early participation in this market, if we are well prepared.

Participants at TNC 2009 viewed three dimensional images during the opening plenary presentation by Jorge Cortell of Kanteron Systems, which was delivered in Malaga, Spain, yesterday 8 June 2009.

Displaying a series of medical images, Jorge Cortell explained how such virtual depictions can be augmented to help surgeons operate with the minimum impact on patients. The solution he described allows an image to be projected onto a patient’s skin showing spatially correct details of the blood vessels, muscles and other tissues including tumours or other pathologies that lie beneath.

Basic middleware issues were highlighted in a successful EuroCAMP (European Campus Architecture and Middleware Planning) workshop in Ireland last week, on 18-19 May.

The director of the hosting Cork Institute of Technology, Brendan Murray, opened the event. An overview of the institute’s IT structure and challenges in setting it up were presented by its IT Manager, Gerard Culley.

This year’s meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networking (CCIRN) heard presentations about a range of collaborative intercontinental efforts in specific areas of research and education networking. This was complemented by information exchange on the development of strategic plans and continental network topology in different world regions. The annual meeting was held on 29-30 April 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. It was hosted by Internet2 in conjunction with its Spring Member Meeting and was chaired by the North American CCIRN co-chair, Heather Boyles.

TERENA has published 'The Case for NRENs', a document that draws together evidence and arguments supporting Europe's national research and education networks (NRENs) and the 'special status' that they enjoy in many countries. TERENA’s Business and Technology Strategist John Dyer gives the author's perspective:

Innovative projects using state of the art electronic infrastructures are bringing real benefits to the Mediterranean region and are vital to accelerate ICT development, agreed participants at the recent EU-Med Event 2 in Amman, Jordan, on 4 November.

Around a hundred high-ranking public officials and specialists from 20 countries in Europe, the Mediterranean region and Middle East attended the day-long event, which highlighted ongoing projects that have benefits for the health, environment and education of people living in the Mediterranean region. The day culminated in the launch of EUMEDCONNECT2 – the high-capacity data communications network that links the research and education communities of the Mediterranean region with those in Europe. The launch celebrated the confirmation of two further years of European Union funding for the network, which builds on the achievements of the EUMEDCONNECT project.