Announcement

The quantum communication project of BeQCI, the consortium including Belnet, imec and Ghent University, has reached a new milestone. After the implementation of the first quantum communication infrastructure in Ghent last year, Belnet has now also successfully established a QKD link between Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg: the very first cross-border MDI QKD connection, 45 km long, in the Benelux. Thanks to the integration of state-of-the-art technology from the Dutch company Q*Bird, the connection was extended to the European Space Agency in Redu, resulting in a total network distance of 132 kilometers.

Belnet has long been a major player in the field of open science, including through its role as a mandated organisation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Association. The company recently took on another new innovative project, the Federal Open Science Cloud (FedOSC). We spoke to Sam Kauranne, FedOSC Product Manager, who explained to us what exactly FedOSC is and what the project means to our community.

From 1 January 2023, all institutions whose main activity is higher education and/or research will automatically become members of the Belnet R&E community.

October is just around the corner and, as usual, that means paying extra attention to information security. European Cybersecurity Month is THE opportunity to inform and raise awareness among your colleagues and end-users and turn them into true cyber heroes. Still looking for inspiration? If so, we'd like to explain two interesting initiatives to which we at Belnet are lending our active support.

For several years now, Belnet has been supporting the annual information security awareness campaign of the pan-European research network GÉANT. The 'human factor' is in fact a crucial element in the fight against security incidents. It is no different for research and educational institutions.

From 1 January 2022, Belnet will take over the management of DMPonline.be from the DMPbelgium Consortium. This tool allows researchers to draw up, manage and share digital data management plans. Some twenty universities, colleges and research centres already use DMPonline.be.

Blockchain is the future. This technology is transforming our society. This is why the European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership are building the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), striving for blockchain technology serving European citizens with services based on European values. The Early Adopters programme and multi-university pilot are showing how Europe's emerging Blockchain Infrastructure will look in practice. 

Last month, Belnet was appointed as the mandated organisation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Association for Belgium. The aim of EOSC is to create a new European web of data as a means of stimulating interdisciplinary research and thereby boosting science and the economy. Belnet's role within this ambitious project will be a coordinating and operational one.

The month of October is traditionally dedicated to cyber security. We would like to draw your attention to 2 interesting initiatives: the European research and education network GÉANT is launching a campaign to raise cyber security awareness within its community and the national awareness campaign will be focusing on two-factor authentication this year.