Transcript Margaret Ngwira on behalf of Tiwonge Banda, Head

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Co-ordination & Harmonisation of Advanced e-Infrastructures for
Research and Education Data Sharing
e-Infrastructures and Applications in Sub
Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
Tiwonge Banda, Margaret Ngwira and Bruce Becker
Research Infrastructures – Grant Agreement n. 306819
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Applications are at the heart of the research and education networking
infrastructure
Over the past 5 years, UbuntuNet Alliance has participated in initiatives looking at
the state of content and applications in the region
e-Infrastructure applications landscape initiatives
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FEAST (www.feast-project.org)
ERINA4Africa (www.erina4africa.eu)
CHAIN (www.chain-project.eu) – grid computing, HPC etc
Interacted with other initiatives
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e-Infrastructure and applications
initiatives
EPIKH (www.epikh.eu)
UNESCO-HP Brain Gain Initiative
EELA (www.eu-eela.eu)
BELIEF2 (www.beliefproject.org)
Current initiatives
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ei4Africa (www.ei4africa.eu) (Started 1 November 2012)
CHAIN-REDS (www.chain-project.eu) (Started 1 December 2012)
iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu)
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Much of Africa has been an einfrastructure greenfield…
Greenfield
countries
• No previous e-Infrastructures activities
• Scarce knowledge and/or experience in
deploying/managing large e-Infrastructures.
• Isolated spots of research activities with high
computing demands.
Advanced
countries
• e-Infrastructures already started/deployed
• Locally developed applications.
• Fair to good knowledge and experience in eInfrastructures
• High quality research groups and institutions
with world wide collaborations.
Among the main challenges:
 cost of bandwidth – slow and poor connections
 low level of regional and international connectedness
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CHAIN Knowledge Base gives
the picture
The ground work is done:
• Regional RENs
• NRENs
• NGIs
• Grid sites
• HPC facilities
• Research centres and
projects
• Research teams
Already there:
• Patches of isolated
projects
• Huge potential for eInfrastructures
• Regional collaborations
– RUFORUM,
NAPRECA, AAP,
Wellcome Trust Sanger
activities, etc
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Eastern and Southern Africa is in transition
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Transition…
Becoming more interconnected
Bandwidth prices going down
Research and education community becoming more
organised
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NRENs, UbuntuNet Alliance and UbuntuNet: the Network ,
AfricaConnect project
Awareness raising of new ways of doing science is in progress
– e-Infrastructures
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…the transition.
Fibre to and within Africa
Fibre to Africa
http://manypossibilities.net
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Intra-Africa fibre map
http://www.ubuntuneet.net/fibre-map
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…the transition. UbuntuNet, research
and education network for SSA
The initiative dramatically
accelerates the
development of the
Information Society in
Eastern and Southern
Africa, providing advanced
data communications
infrastructure and
enabling African
researchers to collaborate
more easily in advanced
international research
projects.
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Terrestrial Ring:
Nairobi  Kampala
 Kigali  Dar
Khartoum
Kinshasa Kampala
Backbone:
Kinshasa 
Mtunzini.
Kigali
Mombasa
Lusaka
Windhoek
Dar es Salaam
Blantyre
Maputo
Backbone:
Windhoek 
Mtunzini
Cape Town
Nairobi
Backbone Ring:
Nairobi  Dar 
Maputo  Mtunzini
Mtunzini
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Growing momentum…
The network opens up unprecedented opportunities for
the research and education communities in the region
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Access, Collaboration, Data sharing, Resource Sharing
South Africa has already made significant investments in a wide
programme of e-Infrastructure for science, TENET/SANReN, CHPC,
VLDS, SAGrid
Grid sites and/or HPC clusters in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda,
Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and many others in West and North
Africa
Genomics studies in human health in Malawi and Kenya
collaborating with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Climate research around Lake Victoria Basin of East Africa (World
Climate Research Program)
Climate Change Urban Vulnerability in Africa – www.cluva.eu
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UbuntuNet supporting radio
astronomy
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HartRAO-SANReNTENET-UbuntuNetGÉANT-SURFnet-JIVE
More researchers to
participate in such
initiatives
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Eyes ahead to the SKA
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African participation in major
international collaborations
LHC
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Allow African scientists
access to major projects
UbuntuNet will provide
the connectivity
Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and
Technology in Ghana also
receiving equipment from
CERN and hoping to
participate in some
research in the medium
future
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Potential opportunities
Many more fields of research stirring up:
 Agriculture
 Natural resources management
 Climate change and earth observation
 E-learning
 Astronomy
 High energy physics
 Bio-medical sciences,
 Arts and culture, etc
CHAIN promoted establishment of National Grid Initiatives
(NGIs) and Virtual Research Communities (VRCs)
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CHAIN Applications Database
Database (www.chain-project.eu/applications)
Science Gateways will simplify access and usage
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Now to CHAIN-REDS
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Emphasis on Data
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Further development of the Africa-Arabia ROC
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Identity Federations to be developed
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Fostering of VRCs in selected disciplines including
Climate-related areas
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Thank you
www.ubuntunet.net
www.chain-project.eu
www.africaconnect.eu
[email protected]
[email protected]
Follow us on Twitter @ubuntunet
Subscribe to our e-newsletter NUANCE – e-mail [email protected]
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