As one of the first in a series of projects foreseen under GN5-FPA, GN5-1 aims to provide faster, more resilient and secure connectivity infrastructure and collaboration services to enable researchers and students’ access to applications that support evidence-based and effective collaboration across virtual research teams, worldwide. GN5-1 will continue the development of state-of-the art, cost-effective, secure and resilient connectivity to provide unconstrained capacity ahead of demand in the backbone network and NREN access in multiples of 100Gbps, delivering Terabit connectivity where needed. GN5-1 will prototype, pilot and, where appropriate, procure new online above-the-net services and deliver pervasive, innovative and distributed trust and identity infrastructure and services to achieve strategic positioning of T&I services as a key enabler of research and education collaboration within Europe. Trusted access to data sources and services, and authentication and authorisation Infrastructure services, such as eIDAS will also be included. The project will address Horizon Europe’s priorities in areas such as data security and access control, innovation and DNSH, and will expand NRENs' users beyond traditional scientific and research communities, enabling networking and access to the common European data spaces. GN5-1 will ensure access for researchers and students to the valued services required for Open Science, it will disseminate learning and training, and build community as well as align with EU policies and ongoing participation with standardisation bodies. GN5-1 can offer its distinctive services due to its human network of professionals, in a consortium with a deep understanding of evolving user requirements. Within this community, knowledge and experience is shared between partners to constantly enhance the quality of the services offered, making it an indispensable element of the ERA.

The GN4-3 is the proposed project for the third Specific Grant Agreement under the 68-month Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) established between the GÉANT Consortium and the European Commission in April 2015. This third phase of implementing the FPA is proposed to last 48 months and is a natural continuation of the work in GN4-2, building on the results and maintaining the overall objective of helping to raise European research to the next level, promoting scientific excellence, access and re-use of research data. GÉANT’s world-class, high-speed backbone provides seamless and secure connectivity with 42 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), reaching over 50 million users in 10,000 institutions across Europe, and more than 100 countries worldwide through links with other regions. The core backbone is capable of multiple 100 Gbps transmission over each fibre link, and Terabit connectivity can be achieved by a single node. The safe and rapid connection of users to each other, to the increasing amounts of data generated by research, and to the high-performance computing capacity required by collaborative research form the foundation of the GÉANT partnership. GÉANT services offer convenient, fast and reliable access to European High Performance Computing facilities, cloud services for the research and education community, access to scientific data and publications and other services from the European e-infrastructure providers, whenever and wherever needed. The structure of the present proposal emphasises updating existing services in line with requirements of the user community. This complements the proposed companion project GN4-3N, an ambitious programme increasing the footprint of the backbone network at the same time as improving its capacity, resilience and flexibility with the aim of offering 100Gbps network access to many more GÉANT partners and significantly diminish the digital divide.

The BELLA-S1 proposal aims to provide for the long-term interconnectivity needs of the European and Latin American research and education networks, and answers the call for transatlantic connectivity to Latin America in the H2020 Work Programme 2014-15. The objective will be to strengthen connectivity to Latin America ensuring very high capacity, cost benefits and the shortest possible route, whilst stimulating diversity over the transatlantic segment. The objective will be met in two phases: phase one will procure an indefeasible right of use for a portion of the spectrum of a direct submarine telecommunications cable between Europe and Latin America; phase two will deploy one or more wavelengths, as required, on the spectrum procured to interconnect the GÉANT and RedCLARA networks, and provide for the intercontinental connectivity needs of the European and Latin American research and education communities.

As a 7-year strategic framework this Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) outlines the overall direction, objectives and impacts without detailing specific deliverables or milestones that will follow in subsequent Grant Agreements (SGAs) that will be actioned under the FPA. In this FPA, the GÉANT consortium of European NRENs propose to evolve the European Communications Commons to provide secure, cost-effective, highly available and reliable services for very high-speed connectivity, identity inter-federation, mobility, security and trust services and solutions; increasing creativity and efficiency of research and ensuring the digital continuum of services to R&E users anywhere in the EU, bridging the divide between developed and less-developed regions. The connectivity and associated services provided are indispensable for seamless, unimpeded access to relevant data, as well as exploitation and management of data generated by European researchers in almost all large research infrastructures. Thanks to successful collaboration between the EC, the GÉANT consortium of NRENs, and their users, these services are second to none, and routinely surpass those of international counterparts. One of the most successful attributes of the GÉANT consortium representing the Research and Education Networks of 44 countries across Europe is the proven ability to agree common interests, while promoting individual or group-led innovations and sharing costs across a diversified membership. GÉANT works with a wide variety of European and global stakeholders to ensure future user requirements for infrastructure are met in a cost-effective and interoperable way. The expertise of hundreds of professionals in R&E networking and industry will be mobilised through the SGAs following this FPA. The GÉANT partners are confident that their joint experience and the leadership of the GÉANT Association will facilitate a successful and impactful execution of a series of SGAs under the proposed FPA.