The Omani Research and Education Network (OMREN) held an open discussion session on the role of the network in supporting the research and education in the Sultanate. This session was held during the Fifth Annual Meeting of The Research Council (TRC) of Oman, which took place in Muscat on 9 December 2019 under the patronage of His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said, Advisor to His Majesty the Sultan and Chairman of The Research Council.
Dr. Abdulmonem Al Kharusi, OMREN Director, presented the role of OMREN and went through the achievements for the last two years. OMREN now connects 24 member universities, which covers 90% of the universities in Oman. OMREN also launched a set of services that include the virtual scientific library (Masader), OMREN Federation, DigiCert, eduroam and eduGAIN.
Eng. Mohammad Al Ghamdi, MAEEN Manager, provided a detailed presentation on the Saudi Research and education Network (MAEEN), including the current and future services that MAEEN is providing to its member universities. He also emphasized on the importance of cooperation with neighboring NRENs through providing connectivity between these NRENs. Prof. Hadj Bourdoucen, Dean of Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University, spoke about the need of the services provided by OMREN to the universities.
Yousef Torman, Director of the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN), was invited to chair the roundtable discussion at the end of the meeting. The roundtable included Dr. Mohammed Al-Abri from Sultan Qaboos University, Dr. Fahem Al-Nuaimi, CEO of Ankabut, Dr. Muataz Al Barwani, Director of HPC at New York University of Abu Dhabi. The roundtable highlighted the importance and necessity of cooperation between NRENs to satisfy the needs of research and education communities in the Gulf by utilizing the Exchange Point in Fujairah to connect to GEANT and Internet2 in cooperation with ASREN.
