|
This research infrastructure serves well defined user communities from universities, academic and industrial research institutions, educational institutions and culture organisations. It is a purely logical network serving a "closed user group" and can be seen as an example of an intranet/extranet. It has no "immediate" end-users, because every such user has to be first a user of one of the participating National Research and Education Networks.
The research and education community is usually to be found at the forefront of development and deployment of new and innovative networked applications. This implies that the most advanced technology has to be made available in order to enable such developments at all. An efficient co-operation among partners from research, industry and user communities will not only help in improving and accelerating exploitation of research results but will also bring research more into line with real market needs. Progress made in research networking very often translates into economic advantages for commercial partners who are willing to co-operate with the academic and research community. The latter does not consider itself as a case for preferable treatment in terms of special fees applicable only for it but rather wants the market to react to its needs in a sensible and responsive way.
NRENs are more tolerant towards technical difficulties, progress made in research networking often translates into economic advantages for commercial partners. Therefore, industrial partners will be welcome. |
