GARR hosts the GÉANT Board of Directors in Rome
On 1–2 July, GARR hosted the GÉANT Board of Directors at its headquarters in Rome. The Board is GÉANT's governing body, responsible for providing strategic direction, supervising the association's work plans and overseeing the organisation.
Composed of elected representatives from Europe's National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), the Board sets strategic priorities, supervises development plans and ensures that GÉANT's activities remain aligned with the needs of the European research and education community.
The meeting provided an important opportunity for Board members to discuss strategic priorities for the future of the European research and education network. Discussions focused on the operational priorities and objectives set out in the new GÉANT Strategy 2026–2030, the implementation of planned initiatives, and the long-term financial sustainability of these initiatives.
The GÉANT Strategy 2026–2030 sets out a vision to strengthen GÉANT's role as a critical infrastructure for research and education across Europe. Its key priorities include enhancing and extending high-performance connectivity, advancing innovative digital services to support open science and international collaboration, and reinforcing the security and resilience of the infrastructure. The strategy also places strong emphasis on environmental sustainability and on adapting to a rapidly evolving technological and geopolitical landscape, while ensuring that the needs of Europe's NRENs—and, ultimately, those of their users and research communities—remain at its core.
In occasion of the Board of Directors' meeting, GARR also hosted the Executive Team's meeting.
read the Géant Strategy 2026-2030
About GÉANT
GÉANT is the pan-European ultra-high-capacity backbone connecting Europe's research and education networks, providing terabit-scale connectivity and advanced services to major research infrastructures. The network interconnects more than 50 million users across over 10,000 research, education and cultural institutions throughout Europe, transferring more than 9 petabytes of data every day. With scalable capacity of up to 31 Tbps, GÉANT supports the continuously evolving needs of the research and education community.
GÉANT is jointly funded by the European Commission and Europe's National Research and Education Networks, including GARR. It is governed and continuously developed by these NRENs through its governance bodies. Its infrastructure and services are constantly enhanced through dedicated research and innovation projects, enabling GÉANT and the European NREN community to remain at the forefront of networking technologies for more than 20 years and to support the evolving needs of researchers, educators and students across Europe.
GÉANT is also globally interconnected with research and education networks in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia. Through dedicated international projects, it extends connectivity even to some of the world's most remote locations, enabling unique research facilities to be accessed by scientists worldwide.
The GÉANT Board of Directors
The GÉANT Board of Directors is the organisation's strategic governing body. It is made up of representatives from Europe's National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), reflecting the countries participating in GÉANT.
The current Board members are:
- Gilles Massen – RESTENA (Luxembourg), Chief Executive Officer
- Claudio Allocchio – GARR (Italy), Senior Technical Officer / Senior Manager & Advisor
- Ronan Byrne – Aseria (formerly HEAnet, Ireland), Chief Executive Officer
- Lars Fischer – NORDUnet (Nordic countries), Senior Strategic Partnerships
- Heidi Fraser-Krauss – Jisc (United Kingdom), Chief Executive Officer
- Floor Jas – SURF (Netherlands), Head of Network, Trust & Security
- George Konnis – CYNET (Cyprus), Managing Director
- Cezary Mazurek – Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (Poland), Chief Executive Officer
- János Mohácsi – KIFÜ (Hungary), Senior Expert in Network Infrastructure and Digital Services
Learn more about GÉANT governance
Telegram