Access to the world’s advanced research infrastructures is vital to modern science. Representatives of URAN and GÉANT spoke about the possibilities of such access for Ukrainian researchers at the event ‘Research and innovation day in Ukraine’, held by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on 17 December 2021.
Chris Atherton, Senior Research Engagement Officer at GÉANT, explained to the audience what the GÉANT Association is and what its advantages are over commercial providers; demonstrated which infrastructures are available through the GÉANT network – and which of them may be of interest to Ukrainian researchers (for example, Copernicus – the European Union’s Earth observation programme).
The GÉANT Association is the collaboration of European national research and education networks, supporting the advancement of research, education, and innovation on a global scale. Together we deliver an information ecosystem of infrastructures and services used for communication, collaboration, exchange of data, and access to repositories, services and facilities.”
Chris mentioned the EU-funded EaPConnect project, which bridges the digital divide between Europe and Eastern Partnership countries by integrating them into Europe’s research and education infrastructure. Ukraine participates in EaPConnect through its National Research and Education Network (NREN), URAN Association. URAN has the means, the ability to connect to GÉANT and the wider global research and education community, Chris Atherton said.
This topic was developed by the Executive Director of URAN Association Yevhenii Preobrazhenskyi. He explained how Ukrainian scientists use GÉANT channels in their research activities, and how more can be done. For example, the National Science Centre Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (NSC KIPT) is the only Ukrainian team that processes data from a multi-purpose experiment with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) run by CERN. Through the URAN network, NSC KIPT gets access to the GÉANT network and then to LHCONE (Large Hadron Collider Open Network Environment), thanks to which they work reliably and efficiently as one of the best computer facilities in the CMS grid infrastructure and maintain Ukraine’s reputation in the international scientific arena.
In his speech, Yevhenii touched not only on the unique digital GÉANT services for science and education, but also described the prospects for the use of two new powerful ‘Spectrum’ network links (Chisinau-Kyiv and Kyiv-Poznan) that were implemented in autumn 2021 under the EaPConnect project. These channels provide new opportunities for local researchers and increase Ukraine’s strategic importance for GÉANT.
With the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, at the initiative of the European Commission and GÉANT in the EaPConnect project, URAN has created a technical and information base for the exchange of scientific information, provided digital services unified to the services of Europe – and in the coming years will work to support the researchers and educators of Ukraine who are interested in European partnership and European integration processes in the fields of science and education.”
