The 25th online meeting of the GEANT General Assembly was held on November 24-25, 2021. The meeting was attended by Vice-President of ANAS, Director General of the Institute of Information Technology, Academician Rasim Alguliyev and Head of the AzScienceNet Network Management Center, PhD in technical sciences Babek Nabiyev.
This year, as every year, the meeting was attended by national, representative and associate members. The online event was attended by more than 70 representatives from research and education networks in Europe and the Eastern Partnership countries.
On the first day of the meeting, elections to the Board were held and the results were announced. Eric Huizer, Director of the GEANT Association, said that the agenda of the meeting was prepared based on the discussions of the Board and the opinions of the representatives.
At the event, participants were introduced to the areas where the action targets for 2022 have been identified in accordance with the approved strategy. Membership issues were also discussed and changes made to members of the General Assembly Representation were brought to the attention of the participants.
At the meeting, Matthew Scott, Chief Program Officer, spoke about the GN5 Consortium Agreement, noting that the Consortium Agreement (CA) sets out the basis for how partners should work together on projects funded by the European Commission.
Then, a financial review for previous years was presented at the event, as well as the action plan and budget of the GEANT Association for 2022 were approved. Information was provided on subscription and membership fees, list of services.
On the second day of the meeting, information was provided on the latest developments in the projects and the GEANT Community Program. Participants were informed about the latest innovations in the GEANT Community Program and Innovation Program. The GEANT Executive Program for 2021 provided information on special interest groups and meetings.
Then the development stages of the GN5-1 project were brought to attention. GEANT Board members Matthev Scott and Raymundas Tuminauskas presented the project preparation schedule, the structure of the working package, and the process of selecting the heads of the working package.
Information on the renewal of the Control Committee in the project GN4-3 / GN4-3N and the main achievements in these projects were also brought to the attention of the meeting participants. The GPPC project provides updates, process features, a detailed schedule for the GN5-1 project, and key management decisions.
Babek Nabiyev, head of the AzScienceNet Network Management Center, proposed to conclude an official agreement between GEANT and its members. It was noted that work in this direction is planned in the near future.
At the end of the online event, information was provided on the date and venue of the General Assembly meetings to be held in 2022.
It should be noted that the General Assembly is the highest governing body of GEANT. Representatives of member organizations meet at least twice a year.