What is an NREN?
A National Research and Education Network (NREN) is a specialised, high-performance research and education (R&E) network that connects universities, research institutes and education organisations nationally and globally.
Together, NRENs form a trusted international ecosystem that enables collaboration, discovery and innovation across borders.
A National Research and Education Network (NREN) is a specialised, high-performance research and education (R&E) network designed to meet the unique needs of universities, research institutes and education organisations.
Unlike commercial internet services, NRENs are built to support data-intensive research, trusted collaboration and connections at a national and global scale.
Why NRENs exist
Research and education place very different demands on networks than everyday internet use.
From moving massive scientific datasets to enabling real-time collaboration between institutions, R&E networks are designed for performance, reliability and trust — supporting work that often cannot happen on the public internet alone.
A global network of networks
Each NREN operates nationally, but none operate in isolation.
Together, NRENs form a globally interconnected ecosystem, allowing researchers and educators to collaborate seamlessly across borders, disciplines and continents.
This “network of networks” model is what enables national research and education communities to participate fully in global research and education initiatives.
More than infrastructure
NRENs are not just about connectivity.
They support the services, platforms and collaborations that underpin modern research and education, enabling discovery, accelerating innovation and helping institutions work together in new ways.
Why NRENs matter
R&E networks operate nationally but connect globally. More than 125 dedicated research and education networks around the world work together as a trusted network of networks, providing seamless connectivity and specialised services at a global scale.
Connecting to a national R&E network provides access to international collaborators, scientific instruments, computational resources and cloud services — all at ultra-high speed. Being part of a national R&E network also means being part of a globally interconnected research and education community.
eduroam is a well-known example of a service developed by the R&E community. Through this secure global roaming service, students, faculty and staff can gain wireless network access at more than 12,000 locations worldwide using the same credentials they use at their home institution.
This shared global scale allows R&E networks to coordinate and support end-to-end services across borders in ways that are difficult to achieve through standard commercial internet services alone.
R&E networks are designed to support research that depends on moving very large volumes of data quickly, reliably and predictably across long distances. This level of performance is essential for modern, data-intensive research.
Unlike standard commercial networks, R&E networks are engineered specifically for research and education. They are designed with low latency, minimal congestion and sufficient capacity to support sudden bursts of intense activity — for example, when a research project needs to transfer large datasets on demand.
Performance is not just about speed. In some use cases, even small delays matter. R&E networks can provide ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth connections that enable activities such as musicians performing together in real time from different locations, with audio and video remaining synchronised.
Where both ends of a connection sit within the R&E network community, nationally or internationally, defined bandwidth and predictable end-to-end quality of service can also be supported.
R&E networks collaborate closely with one another at a global level to support the specialised and often demanding needs of research and education.
Through shared knowledge, joint development and the exchange of best practice, the global R&E network community builds services and capabilities collectively, creating efficiencies, improving reliability and reducing duplication across countries and institutions.
This collaborative approach enables universities, research institutes and education organisations to work together more easily, share infrastructure and services, and participate in international projects that would be difficult to support in isolation.
R&E networks occupy a unique trusted position within the research and education ecosystem. They understand the specific needs of the sector and operate independently between governments, educational institutions and commercial service providers.
In many countries, R&E networks are recognised as trusted pools of expertise and are frequently called upon to contribute to national and international discussions on research, education and digital infrastructure policy. This trust underpins their ability to develop and operate shared services on behalf of the community.
A key example is eduGAIN, an inter-federation service developed collaboratively by R&E networks. eduGAIN connects national identity federations around the world, enabling the secure exchange of identity information and supporting authentication and authorisation across borders.
Through eduGAIN, researchers, educators and students can access services and resources in other countries using their home institution’s login credentials — a capability that is essential for international collaboration and large-scale, multi-institution projects.
R&E networks provide secure and reliable infrastructure for the transmission of sensitive and critical scientific data. Advanced security protocols and network management practices protect data integrity and availability, which is paramount for scientific research.
R&E networks collaborate to create security frameworks for worldwide implementation, while also individually adhering to respective local country security regulations.
R&E networks are drivers of innovation. They develop national and international test beds and pilot services, many of which result in new services that facilitate collaboration, such as trust and identity management solutions.
By working closely with their communities, NRENs often act as testbeds for emerging technologies and service models that later benefit the wider research and education sector.
The R&E network community works together on a national and international scale to drive progress worldwide. The power of that community lies not only in the routers and pipes but in its people, who come together with their technology peers and researchers and educators to explore ideas, share knowledge and best practice and develop projects for the greater good.
This collaborative spirit is at the heart of the global R&E network community.
Learn more about NRENs:
The Case For NRENs
This portal sets out to be a ‘one-stop shop’ for NRENs to find information, materials, arguments and tools for persuading key stakeholders about their raison d’être, value and role and for making the case for R&E networking in general.
GNA-G
The goal of the Global Network Advancement Group (GNA-G) is for R&E networks to work together to better align our resources and make the country-to-country interconnections more efficient for global science collaborations and transnational education.
Stories on this Blog
Advanced ICT is the core of the global network of R&E networks, but these critical networks are made up of more than fibre, routers and switches. The In The Field Stories blog brings together networks, users and beneficiaries to showcase inspiring stories about people and projects making a difference.
