The CAREN (Central Asia Research and Education Network) project will provide high capacity Internet links for the first time to one million students and researchers in over 200 universities and research institutions along the ancient Silk Road in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to each other and to the global research community through connection to the high-speed pan-European GÉANT network.

Progress on the network will be discussed at two high profile meetings to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan between 30 June and 2 July 2009. The CAREN Executive Committee meeting of the CAREN project partners will be followed by the first CAREN Steering Group meeting. Chaired by the European Commission, attendees to the Steering Group meeting include high level representatives from the central Asian partner countries, demonstrating the importance of this project to the region and beyond.

Existing and future projects that will benefit from CAREN span areas such as environmental monitoring, radio astronomy, telemedicine, the digitalisation of cultural heritage, palaeontology and mineral extraction.

Scheduled to come into operation in early 2010, CAREN is currently tendering for a terrestrial broadband network that will replace current links via the satellite-based, NATO-funded virtual silk highway project. As it is fibre-based, CAREN will deliver improved connectivity through a more stable, cost-effective network infrastructure.

The network is co-funded by the European Commission, which is providing initial financial support of € 5 million until the end of 2011 and by the Central Asian countries. The project will be operated and managed by research networking organisation DANTE in conjunction with the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of the countries involved.

The CAREN network is a unique project that will continue and improve connexion between researchers of EU and Central Asia. We very much welcome this initiative and the benefits it will bring", Head of Delegation of the European Commission, Ambassador Norbert Jousten said.

CAREN builds on existing EC-led research network programmes, including the Black Sea Initiative (BSI), which connects the neighbouring South Caucasus to Europe, the TEIN3 network which covers Eastern Asia and the ORIENT link to China. This is part of an overall strategy to connect researchers across the globe, increasing collaboration and stimulating development through high speed network infrastructures.

“Today’s research community needs to be truly global if it is to solve the challenges mankind faces,” said Dai Davies, General Manager of DANTE. “The creation of the CAREN network is a natural progression in fostering worldwide collaboration. We welcome the addition of the skills and knowledge of central Asian researchers to the global research community.”

“Local researchers are extremely positive about the advantages that the new CAREN network will bring,” said Professor Askar Kutanov, Regional CAREN Project Coordinator. “By recreating the links of the old Silk Road between East and West we will be able to benefit from increased collaboration and the ability to co-operate with our colleagues across the globe.”