A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.

It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backbone network, often offering dedicated channels for individual research projects.

In recent years, with the widespread availability of high-speed internet services, their importance has diminished, although many NRENs have expanded their remit of services to include areas such as trust and identity, security, automation, and cloud offerings,[1] while others have evolved into fully fledged digital transformation agencies for their respective national governments.[2]

List of NRENs by geographic area

East and Southern Africa

North Africa

West and Central Africa

Asia Pacific

North America

  • United States – although advocated since the 1980s,[3] the U.S. does not have one single NREN.
{| class="wikitable"

|- ! Name !! Type |- | Internet2 || national |- | National LambdaRail || national [closed] |- | vBNS || national [closed] |- |Edge |state (New Jersey) |- | ESnet || national |- | NEREN|| regional (New England) |- |CAAREN |regional (Washington metropolitan area) |- | CENIC || state (California) |- | CEN || state (Connecticut) |- | NEREN|| regional (Midwest) |- | Illinois Century Network || state (Illinois) |- | KanREN|| state (Kansas) |- | LEARN|| state (Texas) [4] |- | Merit Network || state (Michigan) |- | NERO|| state (Oregon) |- | NCREN|| state (North Carolina) |- | NYSERNet || state (New York) |- | OARnet || state (Ohio) |- | OneNet || state (Oklahoma) |- | OSHEAN || state (Rhode Island) |- | PennREN|| state (Pennsylvania) |- | THEnet|| state (Texas) [5] |- | UEN || state (Utah) |- | WVNET||state (West Virginia) |- |WiscNet |state (Wisconsin) |}

  • Canada
{| class="wikitable"

|- ! Name !! Type |- |CANARIE || national |- |ACORN-NL|| provincial (Newfoundland and Labrador) |- |ACORN-NS || provincial (Nova Scotia) |- |BCNET|| provincial (British Columbia) |- |Cybera || provincial (Alberta) |- |GTAnet|| provincial (Ontario) |- |ECN|| provincial (New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) |- |MRnet|| provincial (Manitoba) [6] |- |ORION || provincial (Ontario) |- |RISQ || provincial (Quebec) |- |SRNet || provincial (Saskatchewan) |}

Latin America

Caribbean

  • C@ribNET - Caribbean NREN
  • TTRENT - Trinidad and Tobago NREN
  • JREN - Jamaica NREN
  • RADEI - NREN of the Dominican Republic

Europe

Nordic countries

Middle East

Central Asia

See also

References

  1. ^ "GÉANT Services". 2025-04-08.
  2. ^ "NRENs driving digital transformation in the Western Balkans". 2025-04-08.
  3. ^ National Research Council (U.S.). National Research Network Review Committee, Leonard Kleinrock et al. (1988). Toward a National Research Network. National Academies. ISBN 9780309581257.
  4. ^ "LEARN: Lonestar Education and Research Network". Tx-learn.org. 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  5. ^ "The Higher Education Network". www.the.net[dead link]
  6. ^ "MRnet Manitoba Research Network - Enhancing Education and Research Through Advanced High Speed Optical Networks". Mrnet.mb.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  7. ^ "CEENet - Central and Eastern European Networking Associations". 2012-04-03. Archived 2012-04-03 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  8. ^ "Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research"