Asia Pacific’s TEIN3 internet network for scientists, researchers and academics reaches yet another milestone
Monday 28th May 2012, Cambridge, UK - The Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3) now connects over 50 million researchers and scientists across Asia, making TEIN3 the world’s largest research and education network community. For the region, this provides a huge opportunity for intra-regional as well as global research collaboration.
Set up to connect Asia and Europe researchers with high speed connectivity TEIN3 connects 16 Asian countries representing almost 60% of the world’s population within a time zone range of only 5 hours.
The network has grown dramatically since the first regional network was established in January 2006. Initially the network connected 30 million users in East Asia and was then extended to South Asia in 2010 and has continued to grow.
TEIN3 is already supporting real-time interactive research collaborations. The network supports real-time collaboration across the region and has great future potential for growth. The areas of research and education using the TEIN3 network include telemedicine, natural hazard warning & environmental monitoring, climate forecasting and extreme weather prediction, bioinformatics research to improve response and mitigation of emerging infections, e-learning, agricultural research, e-culture and earth observation.
The network has accelerated new national research and education networks (NRENs) in the region, most recently in South Asia.
TEIN3 already connects researchers and academics in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Bangladesh and most recently Cambodia, and from the outset has been supported with funding from the European Commission. Through GÉANT, the pan-European research and education network, TEIN3 offers access to another 40 million users.
David West, Project manager for TEIN3 commented: ‘50M users is a major landmark for TEIN3 and demonstrates the value that governments and research and educational institutions in Asia place on improving research capabilities. The TEIN3 network is a key instrument for narrowing the digital divide by allowing developing countries to participate in global collaborative applications’.
About TEIN3
The Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN) connects the research and education community across Asia-Pacific. Starting with a single circuit between France and Korea in 2001, TEIN3, the third generation of the project now links 17 countries in the region to each other and the global research community and is managed by DANTE. Applications using the network include climate research and meteorology, food security and health programmes. The TEIN* Cooperation Center has been established, with Korean government and TEIN partner support and endorsed at ASEM8 in October 2010, to take responsibility for a 4th phase of the TEIN programme running up to 2016. The TEIN*CC organisation will be closely supported by DANTE in its initial phase.
For more information on TEIN3, please visit: www.tein3.net
About DANTE:
DANTE is a non-profit organisation whose primary mission is to plan, build and manage research and education networks. Established in 1993, DANTE has been fundamental to the success of pan-European research and education networking. DANTE has built and operates GÉANT which provides the data-communications infrastructure essential to the success of many research projects in Europe. DANTE is involved in worldwide initiatives to interconnect countries in other regions to one another and to GÉANT.
For more information on DANTE, please visit: www.dante.net
For more information, contact:
Natalie Keuroghlian, DANTE: +44 (0)1223 371 300,
natalie.keuroghlian@dante.net