GN5-2 is the latest phase of the long-running and highly successful GÉANT Project, supporting Europe’s research and education communities for nearly 30 years in close collaboration with the European Commission. The 30-month project, which officially started on January 1, 2025, is funded under the GN5-FPA, the 72-month strategic framework within Horizon Europe – the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. GN5-2 will deliver faster, more resilient, and secure connectivity infrastructure alongside enhanced collaboration services.
GÉANT manages research and education networking projects in partnership with the European Commission (EC), our European NREN members, global NRENs and other partners
At the core of these projects is to interconnect national research and education networking (NREN) organisations in different regions, through the procurement, building and operation of large-scale, advanced international high-speed networks. Some of the projects also include development and delivery of services above the network, and research into networking technologies.
GÉANT has been awarded a contract by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) to deliver high-capacity, secure, pan-European connectivity for Europe’s supercomputing infrastructure. This hyperconnected network will connect HPC centres, national supercomputers, AI factories, quantum facilities, and research and data centres across the continent, enabling seamless collaboration for researchers, industry, and the public sector.
AfricaConnect3 supports the development of high-capacity internet networks for research and education across Africa. It builds on existing networks in Eastern and Southern Africa and North Africa and will extend connectivity into West and Central Africa. With links to the GÉANT network AfricaConnect3 will provide an African gateway for global collaborations.
EUMEDplus builds on the successes of earlier EU-funded projects like AfricaConnect and EUMEDCONNECT and focuses on strengthening the capabilities of NRENs in the Mediterranean region, enhancing their digital transformation efforts, and expanding their service offerings. The four-year project is coordinated by GÉANT in partnership with ASREN, the American University of Beirut, the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique in Morocco, the Cyprus Research and Academic Network, NORDUnet, and SESAME in Jordan.
Previous projects
EUMEDCONNECT3 set out to create a high-capacity dedicated internet network for the research and education communities across the eastern Mediterranean region, enabling scientists and academics to collaborate and engage in innovative, data-intensive international projects. With direct links to the pan-European GÉANT network, EUMEDCONNECT3 provided access to over 50 million users at over 10,000 research and education establishments across Europe.
The EU-funded ‘EU4Digital: Connecting Research and Education Communities (EaPConnect)’ project created a regional high-speed Internet network dedicated to research and education across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The network integrated the NRENs in these six countries with the pan-European GÉANT network.
