“Excellent” project one of very few recipients of top award

11 October 2012 | Cambridge, UK

GÉANT has received an ‘Excellent’ rating for its third and penultimate year of the GÉANT (GN3) project! This top rating is very rarely awarded and is especially remarkable given the large size of the project.

Independent review
Every year an independent panel of experts comprehensively reviews the GÉANT project on behalf of the European Commission (EC), and details its findings in a Technical Review Report. This year particular praise was given to the collaborative spirit and team work amongst all the partners – high praise when the project embraces in excess of 350 people, across 40 countries and at a budget of over €175.2m.

The report singled out many areas for positive comment including money-saving procurements; faster response to user needs; increased efficiency thanks to improved collaboration and working relationships; and the project’s continued contribution to state-of-the-art research and education networking, in particular by developing new multi-domain services and through the research activities which help NRENs in developing their networks and services.

Positive comments
The following extract from the report sums up concisely both the project’s achievements and its aspirations, in how it will continue to support the research and education community:

“In summary the GN3 project provides excellent services and support to the research and education communities in Europe and is continuing to develop and improve its services to keep pace with the requirements of its current and new user communities. The project is also extending its outreach with links to many other regions of the world. Some of the services developed by the project are now being taken up in many other regions and collaboration with these regions is strengthening the support for collaborative global research.”

Matthew Scott and Niels Hersoug, Joint Project Managers of the GÉANT project commented, “All GN3 participants should feel extremely proud to have achieved such high praise for their efforts and encouragement for the project going forward. On behalf of the Project Management Team, we would like to add our sincere thanks to everybody who has helped achieve this outstanding result.”