TNC25 – underlining the spirit of global collaboration and sharing

TNC is the largest and most prestigious research and education networking conference in Europe and the landmark annual event for GÉANT – the collaboration organisation for European NRENs.

The conference, hosted by a different country’s NREN each year, had a theme for 2025 of ‘Brighter Together’ – embracing our community’s spirit of collaboration, breaking down barriers and sharing wide-ranging expertise.

Jisc’s role as host

As host, we were proud to highlight our role not just as the home of Janet, the UK NREN, but our part as a globally connected community. Janet provides secure, inclusive, and integrated physical and digital infrastructure that connects our UK members and customers with research and education collaborations across the world, fostering international collaboration on major scientific and technological initiatives.

We enjoyed sharing our expertise in enabling collaboration, innovation and resilience, and it was even more valuable to learn from others. Among the discussions was recognition that a secure, reliable NREN built upon the three core principles of security, connectivity, and trust and identity gives researchers around the world the confidence to safely conduct their work and, in turn, helps them generate more research revenue.

Having strong links to GÉANT reinforces this confidence for organisations working domestically and internationally.

Strong technological foundations help open education up to everyone

It was a happy coincidence that TNC25 took place during Pride month, in one of the UK’s most inclusive cities – but it was also a stark reminder of the inequalities that persist in the UK and around the world.

At a time when life can be difficult for marginalised groups, Jisc and GÉANT continue to live our values of inclusivity, collaboration and co-operation. Some of the examples highlighted included bringing together the LGBTQIA+ networks from across the NREN community, sharing best practices for meeting accessibility regulations, and reshaping our collective digital provision to make teaching and learning more inclusive.

I was so happy to see how colleagues at TNC25 embraced the conference theme of Brighter Together, recognising how living our values matters. Building inclusivity into our culture is a positive for recruitment and retention of NREN staff, where all colleagues are welcomed.

A united approach to sustainability

It was clear to me at TNC25 how much sustainability mattered – to the event itself, and to the NRENs who all recognise we are in it together when it comes to the future of our planet.

Brighton Dome, the conference venue, ran on 100% green energy. We enjoyed locally-sourced food, and event materials such as passes were digitised or recyclable. These are small steps but they matter.

It was clear not just from the sustainability-focused sessions, but also from conversations among delegates, that there is a strong desire from NRENs to explore strategies to minimise the harm we do to our environment, and support our respective members and customers to do the same.

Collaboration is global

We talk a lot about how NRENs such as Janet enable collaboration and efficiencies between higher education institutions nationally. TNC25 underlined for me how digital transformation is a global challenge, with teams so often working internationally to support each other. In our world, although institutions can be competitive, there is also a culture of collaboration – we all help each other.

This makes sense – after all, technology enables instant communication among students and academics anywhere in the world, and being able to share research information through secure connected systems makes international collaboration a reality.

Work that is being carried out under GÉANT’s funded projects will strengthen the whole network. For example, Jisc and KENET, the Kenyan NREN, have come together through the GÉANT twinning programme, to test new technology bringing eduroam connectivity to remote areas.

Using 4G and satellite connections our specialists were able to connect to the global eduroam network. This has huge potential to untether eduroam from wired networks, bridging the digital divide and bringing the advantages of technology to education institutions everywhere.

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