OpenCloudMesh is a joint international initiative under GÉANT, which is being project-managed jointly by ownCloud Inc., CERN and GÉANT. The project links together researchers and universities in Europe, the Americas and Asia via a series of interconnected, secure private clouds. Built on the ownCloud open Federated Cloud sharing application programming interface (API), OpenCloudMesh delivers universal file access through a globally interconnected mesh of research clouds.
GÉANT partners with the EC, national research and education networking (NREN) organisations and other institutions to bring about new service innovations and adoption on a global basis, through collaboration and assistance projects with international partners
GÉANT currently participates in a range of projects focusing on expanding the reach of, and improving access to, research and education services. This page presents an overview of these projects, with further information available on the respective project websites.
Previous projects
The key objective of this project was to bridge the gap between secondary schools and higher education and research by better integrating formal and informal learning scenarios, and adapting both the technology and the methodology that students would most likely be facing in universities. This initiative aimed to respond to the requirements of a clear mandate from the European Commission, allied with the provision of new cloud-based tools and services to enhance primary and secondary education in Europe.
Federation for Future Internet Research and Experimentation (Fed4FIRE) was an Integrating Project under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) addressing the work programme topic “Future Internet Research and Experimentation”. Fed4FIRE will pursued scientific and technical objectives.
AENEAS was a three year Horizon 2020 project whose primary objective was the development of a concept and design for a federated European Science Data Centre to support the radio astronomy community working of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). GÉANT representatives held key roles in the project – providing expertise in the specification and use of high performance long-distance networks and the design of science DMZ facilities.
eInfraCentral’s mission was to ensure that, by 2020, a broader and more varied set of users (including industry) discovered and accessed existing and developing e-infrastructure capacity. A common approach to defining and monitoring e-infrastructure services will increase the uptake of, and enhance understanding of, where improvements can be made in delivering e-infrastructure services.
The aim of the TANDEM project (May 2015 – April 2017), was to develop awareness of the benefits of research and education networking in West and Central Africa, to enable WACREN and NRENs to take maximum benefit from the EC-funded AfricaConnect2 project. The successes included the creation of the Policy and Donors West and Central Africa Group (PODWAG), which provides a platform for dialogue between WACREN and policy makers, international donors, regulatory authorities and ISPs.
MAGIC aimed to establish a set of agreements for Europe, Latin America and other participating world regions (North Africa and the Middle East, West and Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, Central Asia and Asia-Pacific) to create a marketplace of services and real-time applications for international and inter-continental research communities. GÉANT was one of 21 project partners from across the globe in this successor to the ELCIRA project, led by RedCLARA.
