Side Meeting
Network Development

Side Meeting
SEE NRENs Community Hub
Since its establishment in 2018, the SEE Directors Forum has been working on supporting the NRENs in the SEE region. With strong support from GEANT, that started in GN4-3 and strongly continues in GN5-1, the NRENs work along each-other to address the challenges and overcome the barriers and narrow the digital divide.

Invite only

Opening Plenary  

Keynote: GÉANT projects: past, present and future by Erik Huizer, GÉANT

Keynote: Horizon of possibilities by Peter Szegedi, Programme Officer EU Policies – on behalf of Grazyna Piesiewicz, Head of Unit – European Commission

Keynote: Introduction to GN5 Framework Programme and Current Projects by Matthew Scott, Chief Programme Officer, GÉANT

Matthew Scott, GÉANT

Update on GN5-1/GN5-IC1 Projects Status

by Matthew Scott, Chief Programme Officer, GÉANT

Lightning Talks Pitches for afternoon breakouts

Tryfon Chiotis, GÉANT & Magdalena Rzaca, GÉANT

Keynote Plenary

Connecting researchers and services: the NeIC Puhuri project as an enabler of scientific discovery

The NeIC Puhuri project facilitate the access and provisioning of HPC and Quantum computing resources. The Puhuri resource management service was developed to allow users from academia to access and manage resources e.g. LUMI, through a single portal. For this Puhuri uses the GEANT authentication and authorization infrastructure MyAccessID allowing secure identification through local academic organizations or national authentication services.

Keynote speaker: Anders Sjöström, NeIC-Puhuri project manager LUNARC Lund University

The Higgs Boson, GÉANT and the NREN community

Media coverage of the discovery of the Higgs Boson at CERN in 2012 concentrated on the discovery’s importance for the standard model of particle physics and the length of the quest—nearly 50 years from prediction to discovery. Much less attention was paid to the key role played by networks and the networking community. This talk aims to remedy that oversight as well as helping you to explain the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism to your family and friends.

Keynote speaker: Tony Cass, Leader, Communication Systems Group, CERN

NETWORK Breakouts 

1. Network Developments Update 

In this session latest updates will be provided on all the activities and results from the Network Development Work package (WP6). Topics included but not limited to are listed on the WP6 wiki: https://wiki.geant.org/display/netdev. It will also include some time for discussion to use the opportunity to gather feedback and inputs from the audience.

Speakers: Pavle Vuletić, UoB/AMRES

2. GÉANT Network Evolution and Collaboration

In this session, we will present our approach to GÉANT network evolution and how work package 7 works with NRENs to develop a roadmap for the future. Our primary focus will be on the process of continuous engagement with the NRENs, who play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our network infrastructure and services. Additionally, we will draw upon the insights from a recent Network Chief Technology Officer (CTO) workshop.
We will discuss how this process and collaboration could be further improved.

Speakers: Bram Peeters, GÉANT & Mian Usman, GÉANT

3. GÈANT Automation Platform

GÈANT is building a network automation and orchestration platform based entirely on open-source software and the central elements are the Workflow Orchestrator, developed by Surf and Esnet, and Ansible, an automation engine largely in use in the R&E environment.

The system will support the migration of the GÈANT network to the new generation of IP/MPLS layer.

Speaker: Simone Spinelli, GÉANT

SECURITY Breakouts

1. Introduction to service management in the GÉANT Project

This will be a two-part session, the first will be an introduction to the GÉANT PLM process and how this can form a basic service management structure with its associated checklists. The second part will be an interactive Q&A with the GALD team to collect future service management training requirements.

Speaker: Richard Lui, GÉANT

2. Extending the GÉANT Security Baseline to Products and Services

3. From Trust To Compliance: What is the impact on your service?

Research and education has a long history of collaborating. From the start of networking, this has been based on trust, mostly personal trust. Trust is not enough anymore. We need to prove we are trustworthy. Not only because the scale and complexity has increased by such magnitude that we do not know all parties and persons involved, and there is also an increasing pressure of rules and regulations. What does this mean for your organisation and what is the impact in your service?

Speaker: Alf Moens, GÉANT

NEW WAVES IN TRUST & IDENTITY Breakouts

A forward looking T&I track where we want to present and discuss plans for exploring, piloting and/or implementing new tech and/or strategies into the T&I service portfolio.

1. Core AAI Platform: The road ahead

This presentation explores the next steps for the Core AAI Platform, a key component built on top of the eduGAIN Trust Fabric, essential for providing scalable AAI services in research and education. We’ll examine enhanced features such as identity vetting, multi-factor authentication, and multi-protocol identity flows across administrative realms. Importantly, we will highlight the critical role of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) within the Core AAI Platform in delivering robust and secure services.

Speaker: Christos Kanellopoulos, GÉANT

2. A new identity federation standard

Identity Federations have been around for almost 20 years now and yet we do not have an official specification that describes all the inner workings. OpenID Federation is an holistic attempt in that direction, initially targeting the OpenID Connect protocol. The eduGAIN Service, with the support of the community, is setting up a Proof Of Concept in order to evaluate the new standard and eventually create a new official Technology Profile that will extend the current service.

Speaker: Davide Vaghetti, GARR

3. Decentralized identity, credentials and wallets

A new identity and credential ecosystem is begin crafted as we speak. Developments like the EU Digital Identity framework and the Large Scale Pilots shape this new ecosystem. In this session we will show how the GÉANT community may be affected by this new ecosystem, explain some of its core use cases, opportunities and challenges. Examples from work done in the Trust and Identity incubator will show how we are trying to prepare for these new technologies.

Speakers: Niels van Dijk, SURF & Christoph Graf, SWITCH

SUPPORT Breakouts

1. Security Mentorship Programme: Leveraging online courses to address skill shortage

Within the field of IT Security there is a large shortage of competent people. We therefore feel that we need to train people in R&E in IT security.Within GN5-1 WP8 Task 2 “Awareness” we intend to create a roadmap that will combine hands-on experience within the R&E community, expert guidance through mentoring and self-study of free online courses.

Speaker: Tim Waters, GÉANT

2. Software Governance in GN5-1: recent advancements to enable effective software development in GN

This presentation will highlight the advancements of Software Governance in GN5-1, with a particular attention on open software development in GN. The presentation topics will include among others GitLab CE features, open profiles in the Software Catalogue and software review services for management of risks associated with the infringement of IPR and security vulnerabilities

Speaker: Marcin Wolski, PSNC

3. To certify (learning) or not to certify… (And if so, how?) 

We are exploring whether to certify some GÉANT learning programmes. In this interactive session we will discuss the principles and practicalities of certification, and explore how technology like eduBADGES could enable this. Come and share your views: when is certification useful? What types of certification are available? Which courses are most suitable for certification? What constraints should be considered?

Speaker: Sarah Hughes, GÉANT

Symposium Dinner at “Domaine des Grands Chais“

Meet at the Berlioz gate (Le Corum Level 0) at 18:30-18:45 to departure to the dinner.  Shuttle buses to “Domaine des Grands Chais” will leave at 18:45.
After dinner, shuttle buses between the dinner venue and the Le Corum will be available
between 21:45 and 22:45.

Lightning Talks

1. Data Spaces – what do you need to know? (Annabel Grant, GÉANT)
2. What is the point of Marketing? (Karl Meyer, GÉANT)
3. Gender Equality Unplugged: Principles for Progress (Nicole Harris, GÉANT)
4. Standing on the shoulders of Argus (Ilona Podliashanyk, Sikt)
5. Establishing a License for Your GÉANT Software (Branko Marović)
6. eduMEET 4.0: New Features, New Independence (Bartek Idzikowski, PSNC)
7. Your eAcademy (Dom Mayerl, GÉANT)
8. Best Practices for Software Development (Bartosz Walter, PSNC)
9. Breaking the boundaries of procurement (Garvan McFeeley, HEAnet)
10. Cloud in action (David Heyns, GÉANT)
11. University Virtual Labs on NMaaS (Vojdan Kjorveziroski, UKIM/MARNET)
12. Using chatbot for user support (Maciej Labedzki, PSNC)

Please Click here for more information about each of the talks

60-min deep-dive: User engagement pain points – let’s fix them together

In this interactive session we will discuss in round table groups a number of pain points identified across 4 different Work packages in the areas of user engagement, outreach, service delivery, new service models and requirement gathering.  The aim is to develop specific recommendations and make tangible improvements so that together we can overcome some shared pain points

60-min deep-dive: How developments in the world around us are impacting what we do – Geopolitics and sustainability

The world is changing and we are in the midst of it. In this session we examine relevant geopolitical developments in greater details and discuss how these are impacting the project. Is it impacting us? Are we aware of our changing world or are we naive? How does the increased focus on sustainability impact how we work together?

60-min deep-dive: Network Infrastructure and Services Roadmap

This session is organised jointly by WP6 and WP7 to present and discuss with the audience current activities and future plans related to network infrastructure and services planning, development, operations and maintenance. Starting with a summary of the discussions and conclusions of the Network Evolutions Study Workshops and the CTO workshop, it will look ahead into the second year of the GN5-1 project and beyond.

60-min deep-dive: Sharing the Innovation in various thematic areas

Innovating is at the heart of the GEANT project. Be it in incubators or as part of service delivery, we collaborate as a community to jointly develop and deliver novel and innovative services and products to our users.

This session focusses on how we can maximize the innovation potential of the GEANT project: What ways do we have to bring new ideas into the project? How do we grow from an idea to a new service? How do we engage the community, both NRENs and end users, to get their ideas and input, but also to disseminate our work? Are we missing tools or capabilities that would enable us to innovate even more effectively?
We kindly invite participants from all branches of the project to join in a session to learn, share and discuss the opportunities and challenges we have when innovating in the GEANT project.

60-min deep-dive: Deep dive into Software Governance – quality badges

This session is aimed at everyone who has contributed to software development in GN (SW. engineers, developers, team leaders, product owners or task leaders) and all participants are encouraged to take part in the discussion on Software Governance in GN5-1. The discussion topics will be around quality badges, in relation to two selected areas: 1) establishing a software licence 2) adoption of Common Best Practices.