Asi@Connect News

TEIN*Cooperation Center

Respond to COVID-19 in 2020

Asi@Connect project played key roles in each partner country. The R&E network infrastructures responded quickly during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. Well trained engineers and NRENs supported schools, universities and the network users by providing network services such as, e-learning platforms and various ICT technologies. People in quarantine or in lock down could continue their education and work. Asi@Connect has promoted the online platform services and provided appropriate technical training for developing countries. The TEIN community could respond quickly to the national requests for the e-learning and the network services.

All Asi@Connect partners are connected to the TEIN with the completion of the Mongolia connection.

A major milestone for the TEIN community is the network connection to Mongolia, which was the only partner still to be connected. The TEIN network was successfully linked to Mongolia in October 2020 with a bandwidth of 150mbps. All Asi@Connect partners (24 countries/economies) are now connected to the TEIN and all NRENs and network users can benefit from this connection and Asi@Connect program. Congratulations to the Mongolia NREN and the TEIN community!

Asi@Connect sub-granted activities (41 events from 37 sub-granted projects)

Although COVID-19 had a significant impact, Asi@Connect was able to proceed with 41 events (online & in-person) with more than 500 attendees from 30 countries in 37 sub-granted projects. The topics covered included collaborations in E-learning, Digital Divide, Food security, medical area, and future internet, etc.

About Asi@Connect Project

The EU co-funded Asi@Connect project provides a dedicated regional high capacity and high quality Internet network, Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN), for research and education (R&E) communities across Asia-Pacific and Europe, and leverages e-infrastructures developed for public service projects. This project marks the 4th phase of EU funding to the TEIN programme which was launched as an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Initiative in 2000; it successfully established a regional research and education Internet network from scratch in 2004 and progressively expanded its geographical footprint over the years. Asi@Connect takes over the R&E backbone from TEIN-4, the most recent phase in the TEIN Initiative and will continue to connect regional researchers with their counterparts in Europe via GÉANT, the world’s most advanced international research and education network, providing the Asia-Pacific countries with a gateway for global research collaboration. Asi@Connect receives €20 Million funding from the EU up to 2021 with additional financial contributions from the Asian partners.

The Asi@Connect partners are the National Research & Education Network associations (NRENs) of Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, The Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Asi@Connect is managed by the regional networking organisation TEIN*Cooperation Center (TEIN*CC) which was endorsed by the ASEM-8 Summit in Brussels in 2010, and established in Seoul, Korea in 2011. To find out more, visit www.tein.asia (Facebook@AsiaConnectProject/ Twitter @AsiaConnectNews)