Last week, EUNIS Board members Isabel Gallin and Evelien Renders, together with newly elected Board member Ilja Afanasjevs from Latvia, participated in the annual TNC conference, GÉANT’s flagship event for Europe’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs).
One message is becoming increasingly clear: education is moving higher up the agenda within the NREN community.
For many years, GÉANT and the NRENs focused primarily on networking infrastructure. Later, trusted digital identity became a major area of collaboration, leading to services such as eduroam and eduGAIN that are now used by millions across Europe and beyond.
Today, the scope is expanding once again.
Last week, GÉANT presented its new strategy, which includes education as one of its emerging service areas. This is an important development for universities and colleges across Europe, reflecting the growing recognition that digital transformation in higher education requires close cooperation between institutions, technology experts, policymakers, and the organisations that provide the underlying digital infrastructure.
This shift was also visible throughout the conference. The Special Interest Group for Education attracted a full room of participants, demonstrating strong interest from NRENs in supporting educational innovation and interoperability. A dedicated session on European University Alliances highlighted growing momentum across Europe, with an increasing number of NRENs actively exploring how they can contribute to alliance infrastructure, cross-border services, digital identity, and data exchange.
To support this growing collaboration, EUNIS and GÉANT are currently developing a Memorandum of Understanding. The aim is simple: create stronger links between higher education institutions and the NREN community. EUNIS can help bring the voice of universities into discussions on emerging services, standards, and policy developments, while GÉANT and the NRENs provide valuable expertise and operational experience from Europe’s digital infrastructure landscape.
These developments align closely with EUNIS’s mission to empower digitalisation professionals, strengthen institutional resilience, and help shape the future of digital higher education in Europe.
In addition to participating in the programme, the EUNIS representatives also met with potential new members and partners, continuing to expand the network of organisations working together on the future of European higher education.
We look forward to collaborating closer with the NREN community in the future!
