Fifth Framework Programme: Working Paper

Research Networking

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The objective would be

• to facilitate the supply of trans-European broadband interconnections between national
  • research,
  • education and
  • training
  networks (which are currently fragmented into local islands of connectivity) at capacities and of a quality matching the aggregated need of Europe's academic and industrial researchers and
• to keep the resulting network at the forefront of the state of the art.

[It would be more competitive to state the objectives in world terms, for example to provide Europe's research and education communities with services comparable with and preferably superior to those available in North America and other strategic regions. Notably, the USA administration is seeking to open its research networks to wider educational and training use, recognising that superior network performance is as important to schools and to commercial education and training organisations as to universities. Europe would do well to follow suit.]

Advanced European Experimental Testbeds The objective would be the integration of leading-edge collaborative

• research and development,
• demonstration and
• take-up activities,

• technologies,
• protocols,
• services and
• distributed applications.

[*Why "experimental"? A severe constraint on experimentation, feasibility testing and demonstration in Framework Programme 4 has been the fragmentary nature of access to broad band connectivity. Researchers and developers need the convenience of ongoing access to high performance networks, rather than the overhead associated with "experimental" linkages.]

It would also lead to the early availability of the most advanced infrastructure, which would in turn allow for early experiments with advanced applications (e.g. remote high-volume data visualisation, meta-computing or networked immersive virtual reality) requiring very high bandwidth or new services. It would also enable Europe to play a leading role in defining, standardising and validating the next generations of network protocols (including those for the Internet) and other emerging broadband services. It would contribute to the long-term interoperability and seamlessness of advanced network infrastructures, services and applications.

[Another issue here is the tendency for access to be made available only to those who are receiving EC support for their research. Its essential that (for example) developers in small firms focused on the commercial market but not successful in bids for public contributions to their research costs should still have access to the best facilities.]