This week, partners in the GN5-2 project met in Brussels for the 2026 GÉANT Project Symposium, hosted by the GÉANT Association at the Maison de la Poste. Autumn colours, renovated industrial buildings and the life of the city created a fine setting for the community to gather.
For 25 years, the GÉANT projects have been pivotal to how Europe’s NRENs have developed; their infrastructures and services, the technologies that the research and education community relies on, and the GÉANT network and services that connect us all. GN5-2 is the current project in that line.
The Symposium is held every few years for project partners to come together and share results, learn from each other and plan ahead. It brings the specialists who carry out the project’s work together with project management, GÉANT Association executives and NREN leadership. The programme combines a review of results and progress with discussions of where the project should go next, aiming for shared positions.
This year’s timing made that discussion particularly relevant. With nine months remaining of GN5-2 and the newly approved five-year strategy for the GÉANT Association, the Symposium offered an excellent moment to align on ambitions for GN5-3, and to look further ahead at the opportunities and challenges of the next EU Framework Programme (FP10).
The Nordic NRENs and NORDUnet are long-standing partners in the GÉANT project. Nordic contributions range from optical spectrum sharing and campus network as a service to eduroam and core trust and identity infrastructure for research and education. Nordic colleagues were well represented in Brussels: presenting results, joining panels and taking an active part in the community discussions.
GÉANT Open Day
This year, the Symposium was paired with a high-level policy and engagement event. Choosing Brussels as the meeting location made it easy to invite stakeholders from across the city’s policy and technology landscape, including several members of the European Commission.
The Open Day marked 25 years of the GÉANT projects’ contributions to European research and education, and to European excellence in IT and communications. Discussions looked at the role of the GÉANT Association and the GÉANT project in a changing landscape of technology, research and education.
“A European governed, reliable, resilient research network is an enabling condition for digital Europe.”, said Kilian Gross, Director for Enabling and Emerging Technologies at DG CNECT, EC in his opening address, adding that “the GÉANT ecosystem is an important example of public-private cooperation. GÉANT remains a strategic European asset”.
