Abu-Ghazaleh Chairs ASREN Shareholders’ Annual Meeting

CAIRO- HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh headed the annual meeting of the shareholders of the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) at the League of Arab States in Cairo.

He expressed his appreciation to HE Ahmed Aboul-Gheit for patronizing the 7th e-AGE and the 9th AROQA Annual Conference. He also expressed his appreciation to the Department of Education and Scientific Research at the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States and to the Egyptian Universities Network for host and support.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh approved ASREN’s financial statement of 2016 and its operational plan of 2018, which emphasized on the development of pan Arab research and education network. It also emphasized on 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.

It was decided follow on the recommendations of e-AGE which emphasize on the integration of Arab e-infrastructures and connection with Europe, the United States, Latin America and Africa through ASREN’s exchange point in London as well as on contributing to the establishment of national research and education networks in Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Djibouti and Comoros, as well as to continue to support research networks and infrastructure development in Arab countries.

The shareholders’ meeting approved that a legal mechanism needs to be developed to facilitate the joining of national research and education networks in the Arab countries to the Arab States Research and Education Network as members of Board of Trustees instead of joining as shareholders. The current shareholders will be the founding members.

The shareholders’ meeting emphasized on the importance to build on the success of the EUMEDCONNECT and AFRICACONNECT and other European funded projects to enhance collaboration between Arab and European scientists as promote the development of research that focuses on the use of e-Infrastructures.

It was also decided to hold e-AGE 2018 in December 2018 and the location will be decided later.