BEIRUT – HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh headed the annual meeting of the shareholders of the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) at the American University in Beirut.

Abu-Ghazaleh approved ASREN’s operational plan of 2017, which emphasized pan Arab research and education network development. It also emphasized the importance of services and applications to research and education communities, including Eduroam, EduGain, Science Gateway, and Identity Federation platforms for seamless access to repositories, computing facilities, and services, worldwide.

The importance of research to support economic and social prosperity was raised to enable policies to prioritize scientific research and develop actions for national e-Infrastructures to link universities, research centers, and educational institutions.

It was decided to form a technical task force to work on “Arab Connect” initiative in cooperation with the Arab League and the Arab Organization for ICT and the International Telecommunication Union. The objective is to strengthen efforts to build a research and education network across the Arab region to interlink communities of research and education. The initiative involves three elements: national research and education network, pan-Arab e-Infrastructure, and Services. The aim of the national infrastructure and the regional research and education is to connect universities and research centers at the national level and become an integral part of the global networks for research and education.

It was also decided to hold e-AGE 2017 and AROQA 2017 under the patronage of the League of Arab States in Cairo in December 2017.