TECHCHARE: LEBANON’S NRENCAMILLE ABOU-NASR - LAU

YOUSSEF ASFOUR - AUB

TECHCHARE

• Perseverance

•Harmony and Camaraderie

• Services in mind

2

NREN ROUND 1

•Ministry of Education along with CNRS led the effort to

establish an NREN

• Effort was focused on building a dedicated network to

connect universities and research institutions in

Lebanon

BUT

• Political and infrastructure hurdles prevented network

from coming to fruition

• Project went dormant waiting for the establishment of

the network

3

ROUND 2: LERN

• Continuation to round 1

• More universities joined the effort to establish Network

• Lawyers drafted documents for the foundation of an NGO

BUT

• Political and infrastructure hurdles prevented network from coming to fruition

• NGO agreement did not go through

HOWEVER

• Universities Started rolling out services: EDUROAM

• Got our Librarians to meet and start laying out ideas to what inter-library services they envisage the network will benefit them

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ROUND 3: TECHCAREIF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME

• Private universities perseverance

• 3 members signed, then grew to 5

•Governance:

• All members are equal

• Decisions are made through majority vote

• New members

• New services

5

5 Universities Signed TechCARE ...

… and 5 more are working through their approval process to

sign …

5 Universities Signed TechCARE ...

FORMALLY ESTABLISHING THE LEBANESE NREN

• Base Service:

• Mandatory

• Led by AUB

• Covers basic membership fees

• Includes EduRoam, Digital Certificates, and LIFE federated services , peered network for free

• Services

• Each service has a “Lead Institute”

• Mandate to negotiate and “sign” on behalf of the group

• Responsible for the definition, implementation and operation of the service

• Managing finances of service

• Optional

• Working on expanding membership to 10 this year

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Eduroam

•Certificate Services

•More than doubled connectivity since Feb 2018, more

competitive pricing

• Peered network … for free!

• Federated Services

•Center of Excellence

…and trying to get more universities to join.

• Inter-library services• Shared telescope services• Collective agreements with key vendors• Collaborations with CERN and others

We are also working on new services …

Our biggest challenges continue to be …

Getting other universities to joinIdentifying global collaboration opportunitiesFunding new services

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Camille Abu Nasr & Yousif Asfour

TechCAREThe Lebanese NREN