Sparkle and GÉANT Community Advance Global Research and Education Connectivity via European Union Co-funded Projects
New capacity agreements expand research and education networking routes across Europe, Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean region, supporting cross-border scientific collaboration, providing access to global research infrastructures, and helping reduce the digital divide
Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, and GÉANT, the pan-European network and service provider for research and education, have taken their collaboration a step forward, strengthening connectivity for the global scientific and academic community.
GÉANT operates the world’s largest network of its kind, interconnecting Europe’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and serving over 50 million users across 10,000 scientific institutions in Europe, with reach extending to more than 110 countries worldwide and backbone speeds of up to 1.6 Terabit per second.
Already a GÉANT provider for connectivity and cloud services, Sparkle has recently strengthened its role by securing three new tenders and subsequently delivering international capacity along strategic routes across Europe, Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region. These initiatives are supported by major international projects co-funded by the European Union and by Research and Education Networking organisations aimed at advancing digital inclusion and scientific collaboration.
In particular, the new link between Slough in the UK and Allan in Jordan will strengthen connectivity between ASREN (the Arab States Research and Education Network) at its UK point of presence and SESAME, a flagship international research facility and the region’s first synchrotron light source, fostering advanced research and cross-border collaboration. The new link between Marseille and Cairo interconnects ASREN member ENSTINET, the Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network, to the wider ASREN community and to Europe via GÉANT. Both routes were procured and delivered under EUMEDplus, a European Union co-funded project aimed at enhancing digital infrastructure, connectivity, and collaboration between Arab Mediterranean countries and Europe.
“We are proud at ASREN for being served by Sparkle to connect the Egyptian NREN and SESAME and look forward to more.” said Yousef Torman, Managing Director of ASREN.
In Africa, a new Lagos-Cape Town route was delivered to WACREN (the West and Central African Research and Education Network), connecting the Lagos Global Exchange Point (GXP) in Nigeria - recently established by WACREN - to the ZAOXI GXP in Cape Town. This enabled WACREN to interconnect to the UbuntuNet Alliance’s Eastern and Southern African research and education community through South African NRENs SANReN and TENET, marking the historic first-ever interconnection between Africa’s Regional Research and Education Networks on African soil. This achievement was made possible through AfricaConnect3, the project supporting high-performance connectivity for academic and research communities across the African continent, co-funded by the EU and implemented by WACREN, ASREN, and UbuntuNet Alliance, together with GÉANT.
“This collaboration with GÉANT highlights the strategic role of connectivity in enabling global scientific progress,” said Annalisa Bonatti, Vice President Enterprise at Sparkle. “By leveraging our international backbone, we are helping research and academic communities collaborate, share data, and innovate seamlessly across continents.”
“Researchers and students depend on fast, reliable connectivity to collaborate and access critical resources. Our role is to make this possible by working alongside our international research and education networking community. GÉANT is proud to support WACREN, the UbuntuNet Alliance and ASREN and collaborate with Sparkle to strengthen digital infrastructure around the world.” said Bram Peeters, Chief Network Services Officer at GÉANT.
These connectivity agreements build on a long-standing collaboration between GÉANT and Sparkle dating back to the early 2010s. Over the years, Sparkle has been repeatedly selected through GÉANT tenders as one of the leading European service providers of the GÉANT Cloud Frameworks. Most recently, this includes the OCRE 2024 Framework for the provision of advanced cloud services to European academic and research institutions in 39 countries and until 2030. The collaboration continues to evolve, with a shared focus on resilient, high-performance, and future-ready digital infrastructures.
About GÉANT
GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe’s economic growth and competitiveness. The organisation develops, delivers, and promotes advanced network and associated e-infrastructure services, and supports innovation and knowledge-sharing amongst its members, partners, and the wider research and education networking community.
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