Interview

In 2020 Belnet was appointed as the Mandated Organisation (MO) in Belgium for EOSC-A. The Mandated Organisation plays an important role in both facilitating the development of EOSC in the country as in representing and supporting the national research community on an international level. Belnet is the Belgian National Research and Education Network (NREN), which means Belnet provides the physical connections to the EOSC ecosystem, but is not a research funding organisation or a research performing organisation itself. In this interview we find out in what ways Belnet represents the needs of the research community in Belgium, how they engage with this community and which strengths and challenges the organisation detects when talking about the EOSC developments in Belgium.

International Connectivity uses the GÉANT network, of which Belnet is a part. Belgian research and higher education institutions can therefore make point-to-point connections with sites abroad without leaving the research network.

Did you know that all National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Europe, such as Belnet, are connected via the GÉANT network? To successfully address the numerous challenges faced by research and educational institutions, cooperation across national borders is of paramount importance.

ESA Redu is not just a centre for education in space research, based in the Belgian Ardennes. It is also a European earth observation and solar observation station, and is involved in radio navigation and space cybersecurity.

The Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) is a non-profit research institute, with a clear focus on groundbreaking strategic basic research in life sciences and operates in close partnership with the five universities in Flanders. Scientists at VIB conduct pioneering research across a wide spectrum of disciplines ranging from cancer, inflammation and neuroscience to plant biology. To exchange huge amounts of data with the scientists of the different VIB labs and other academic researchers, the organisation makes extensive use of Belnet FileSender. We spoke to Marcus Fislage, Cryo-EM manager at VIB/VUB.

Federal Public Services (FPSs) are connected by Belnet to one another and to the Internet via FedMAN (Federal Metropolitan Area Network). FedMAN is an essential part of the federal government's IT infrastructure and was fully integrated into the Belnet network about 10 years ago. Recently, in line with the rest of the Belnet network, the FedMAN ring has been running entirely on new equipment from Ciena. Tom De Clercq, one of our network architects, explains the benefits of this renewal and how the network team brought this project to a successful conclusion.

Laura Standaert is Data Steward at UGent for the Life Sciences & Medicine cluster, which includes the Faculties of Medicine, Health Sciences, Veterinary Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Together with four other Data Stewards and two Data Curators, she works within the Open Science Team to provide professional support to researchers (from PhD level upwards) in the management and preservation of research data.