Brussels, 28/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - Scientists and researchers in Pakistan can now connect with their colleagues across the globe, thanks to a new high speed computer network link, made possible by GÉANT, the advanced pan-European backbone network, and TEIN, the Asian equivalent to GÉANT. Viviane Reding, the European commissioner in charge of telecommunications, affirmed that “this is an excellent model for co-operation between North American and European programmes, which I hope we can build on in the future". European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner highlighted the deepening of relations since the cooperation agreement signed in 2004. She also welcomed the fact that this link would help Pakistanis get involved in international research collaboration and declared that this “reinforces our commitment towards building a strong partnership with Pakistan".
In practical terms, the Pakistan Education Research Network (PERN) will be linked up to the European GÉANT network through its new TEIN connection, an EU funded network covering all of Asia. Using European networks, Pakistani scientists from 60 universities and institutes, will be able to work with their peers on research projects that require fast data transfers to share information across the globe. Through this link, Pakistan is the first of a series of new countries joining TEIN3, the next generation of EU-funded Asian research networks. The Commission recently announced a €12 million funding for TEIN3, a large scale Asia Pacific network. Launched in 2000, GÉANT was further upgraded to become a world leader and to boost Europe's attractiveness as a place to do research and teaching. TEIN and GÉANT together serve close to 100 million researchers in Europe and Asia, enabling ground-breaking research collaboration in fields such as climate change, radio astronomy and biotechnology. (I.L./transl.rh)