France Telecom-Orange announced on October 10, 2011 the landing in Penmarc’h, Brittany, of ACE, the new submarine cable serving 23 countries by linking France to South Africa.

The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable, initiated by France Télécom-Orange and administered by a consortium of 17 operators will link Europe to the West Coast of Africa through an unprecedented connectivity. Efficient and competitive, this 700 million dollar system uses the most advanced high-speed broadband fiber optic technology and will be a vector of social development and economic growth in Africa, reducing the digital divide.

Targeted to be operational in 2012, the ACE cable will provide access to the global broadband network for the first time for Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sierra Leone, making possible the launch of new services. Landlocked countries such as Mali and Niger will also be connected via the terrestrial network.

This report presents the GÉANT experts’ views on the future of the pan-European research and education network GÉANT. It makes specific recommendations to policy makers, funding bodies and the research and the education networks community for supporting and expanding knowledge communities, pushing state-of-the-art technology and adapting to change both from a governance and funding point of view. In preparing the report the GEG took input from a variety of sources including interviews with over 25 experts operating in the research networking and related fields, as well as input from official policy documents, NREN reports and GÉANT deliverables.

The GÉANT network has extensive links to other world regions through collaboration with further networks, including those in North and Latin America, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Black Sea, South Africa, Central and Eastern Asia.

The report was presented on Tuesday 4 October 2011 to Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and European Digital Agenda Commissioner.

On the occasion of the Internet Governance Forum, held in Nairobi on 27-30 September 2011, the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes visited Kenya to further explore the role of ICT in the developing world.

Passionate about the role that ICT can play in stimulating Europe’s economy, Commissioner Neelie Kroes strongly believes that it can be similar in the developing world: “Supporting development has always included investing in infrastructure, which has historically meant things like the water supply, roads, electricity networks, or human capital. But in the modern world ICT is essential infrastructure too, without which our economy cannot function”.

During her visit in Kenya Ms Kroes had the chance to visit three successful projects addressing “ICT for development”: Close the Gap, the WEEE and i-Hub. Talking to those entrepreneurs “I was clear how much the Kenyan society stands to gain. From medical innovations like making it easier to find your local clinic and make an appointment, to audio text-messaging for the visually impaired, to projects targeting women and those from the slums. All in all, a very fulfilling day looking at what ICT can do for developing countries – and a day which reminded me just how similar the opportunities and challenges are in Europe, too.”

The complete report is available on Neelie Kroes’ blog.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) are delighted to announce the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) to be awarded for the first time in February 2012. This prestigious and well-endowed award aims at encouraging innovations that contribute to sustainable development in Africa.

IPA acknowledges, supports and encourages innovators and entrepreneurs, a group of stakeholders who till now have neither been considered nor benefited under Africa’s development cooperation agenda. The prize is expected to promote among young African men and women the pursuit of science, technology and engineering careers and business applications.

The 2012 IPA will consist of two awards given to the two selected innovators/entrepreneurs in the following three thematic areas: ICTs; Green technology (energy and water); Health & Food security (including Agriculture). The first prize will be USD100,000 for the selected best innovators/entrepreneurs, and the second Prize will be USD50,000 for the second selected innovators/entrepreneurs.

The deadline for the submission of applications is Sept. 30, 2011.

The implementation of AfricaConnect has well and truly started. During the last eight weeks, the technical design team has gathered the coordinates of POPs among the member NRENs. These are required as a component of the Request for Information and later the formal Request for Proposals.

At the same time, those NRENs (including WACREN and its members) that have capacity building gaps have submitted details of training needs that will guide the capacity building programme due to roll out starting September. Three approaches will be used for capacity building:

• Attachments, where someone from one of the African NRENs is attached to a European NREN for one to two weeks to gain depth in a specific skill that needs to be used by their network. Such training will use a just in time basis to avoid decay of skills due to lack of immediate application.
• Secondments, where someone from an advanced NREN comes to work with an African NREN for one to two weeks, helping them to address problems they have with their operation networks.
• Joint learning events where experts and learners are brought together in a workshop style setting to address a topic or topics where there is cross-cutting need for capacity.

Attachments and secondments will exploit twinning arrangements that are already in place because these provide a framework where these are very easily arranged. CEOs and CTOs are requested to mark the 20th – 23rd November for AfricaConnnect related meetings at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi.

Issues of Climate Change are topping the agenda in almost every discipline. In the field of ICT, there are multiple aspects to consider. On the downside, NRENs are aware of the contribution of the energy used by ICT equipment impacting negatively on climate and also of the challenge of safely disposing of this equipment at the end of its life cycle.

On the upside of ICT’s potential contribution in addressing climate change issues, there are many opportunities. For example, in Malawi in July, there were consultations involving a group including Professor Kadzamira, Chair of the Alliance and Tiwonge Banda on looking at the role of ICT in mitigating Climate Change. All NRENs should be aware of the power of their (sometimes potential) networks and the opportunity presented in the current top prioritization of Climate change adaptation and mitigation in the research and development agenda.

A UN Climate Change Conference (COP-17) is to be held in Durban, South Africa. Ahead of this, participants at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change in Ghana (the 6th in the series) have renewed calls for global leaders to recognise the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

In collaboration with DFN (the German Research and Education Network), KENET (the Kenya Education Network) is setting up the EDUROAM service in Kenya, which is going to be the first in Africa. The service will benefit thousands of university staff and students as they roam with their laptops.

EDUROAM is a federated roaming service that allows users within the KENET network to roam with their laptops without the trouble of guest account at different campuses. Users will be authenticated by a central server at KENET. This means a faculty member, for example, visiting or teaching at another university on EDUROAM can use the network of the other university as if he or she is on the home campus without the need for guest account. All e-journals and e-book access rights will be available to the faculty member. KENET will provide the additional Internet bandwidth required to support the roaming service. The same applies to the students.

According to a new report released by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development during its third meeting at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (July 27, 2011), governments around the world need to formulate and implement national multi-sectoral broadband plans rapidly – or risk being seriously disadvantaged in today’s increasingly high-speed digital environment.

Entitled “Broadband: A Platform for Progress“, the report advocates a coordinated, nationwide approach to broadband development that more closely resembles the development of national railway or electricity networks than the more laissez-faire, market-driven approach that has generally characterized the roll-out of mobile cellular technology.

The thinking of the research and education community was specifically addressed through presentations by Dai Davies of DANTE, Bjorn Perhson of KTH, and F.F. Tusubira, the CEO of the Ubuntunet Alliance.

From the discussions emerged that NRENs in Africa need broadband in order to eliminate the intellectual isolation that sees researchers cut off from their peers and diverted to purely money making ventures; to enable access to online resources that would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of research and learning and therefore address the huge Intellectual Property deficit in African countries; to create research synergy through regional and international content/research networks; and to create intellectual havens that would reverse the flow of the brain drain.

On the other hand, broadband in Africa needs NRENs to stimulate demand by ensuring that people entering the job-market at all levels are internet ready and thirsty for broadband connectivity. NRENs enable the kind of connectivity required for cutting edge research and applications that in turn lead to advanced bandwidth hungry industrial parks associated with academic and research institutions; and also create an environment that will develop the human resource with the capacity to assure the availability and security of broadband ICT resources as Africa transforms.

NUANCE: Newsletter of the UbuntuNet Alliance

The Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU) commissioned last June, with the assistance of the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF), the phase one of its network backbone, covering Kampala metropolitan area and Entebbe.

When the last mile connections will be activated in early September 2011, this network will cover institutions within Kampala metropolitan area and the surrounding towns of Entebbe and Mukono. This phase provides the core block on which phases 2 and 3 will be built to connect institutions in other parts of the country.

For RENU, this core building block is a major milestone in its efforts to provide an affordable and quality network connecting its members irrespective of their location in Uganda.

The European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Mrs Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, has announced on 21 June 2011 the new name for the future EU funding programme Research and Innovation: Horizon 2020 will inter into force on January 1, 2014, after the end of FP7 on December 31, 2013.

“Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation” is not just a new name for the same Framework Programme. It is the name for the new, integrated funding system that will cover all research and innovation funding currently provided through the Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). These different types of funding will be brought together in a coherent and flexible manner. Research and innovation funding will focus clearly on addressing global challenges. Needless red tape will be cut out and access to programs and participation will be made easier and simpler.