Feb
20
GN3 (Geant 3) Planning
February 20, 2008 |
Geant2 PR Group - 20 February 2008
Geant2 officially ends in August 2008 but will practically continue into 2009. GN3 starts around March-May 2009. There will be a requirement to make the PR work around GN3 more significant than with Geant and the NREN’s will be needed to collaborate more fully
Likely funding is around 90million euros which is one of the largest R&D project funding. But there is no guarantee that this funding will be awarded. There will be a call for proposals from EU in May 2008 with a submission deadline of 11 September 2008. The commission will evaluate all proposals and the contract is anticipated in March-May 2009. There are two committees preparing the proposals – the GN3 membership committee and the GN3 technical strategy committee. There is no absolute process for the proposal but NREN PR input is felt to be important in order to foster collaborative work.
Geant3 structure likely to be similar to Geant2 and it will be the 8th generation of pan-European research networks – currently made up of 30 EU NREN’s, DANTE and TERENA and likely to last for four years. Structure is Joint Research Activities (JRA’s - R&D), Services Activities (SA’s -including network procurement) and Networking Activities (NA’s - where PR sits)
High level objectives will include providing a pan-European network linking all NREN’s, develop test and roll out network services and tools, and focus on multi domain, end t end service. Also likely to focus on implementation and roll out of new services and the formalisation of user input. Several Geant2 activities are likely to continue such as PERT, eduGAIN, eduroam, V-C Support etc
The last Geant2 audit report commented that a stronger involvement of NREN’s is required and there is more dissemination at a national level is needed. NREN’s are seen as fundamental to communicating out the role of Geant. Likely GN3 communications work might include branding, marketing communications, events, market research, product marketing, and PR. General objectives here would include portraying a positive image of GN3, help increased use of the network, contribute to the adoption of new services etc. Target audience include users, EU and national politicians, industry, media and political decision makers
