The director of CESNET association, Jan Gruntorád, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the GN2 project

The director of CESNET association, Jan Gruntorád, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the most important European networking project, GN2, for another three-year period. The task of the five-member executive committee rests in the operative management of the entire project, whose objective is to build a new generation of pan-European research and education network. This would enable European researchers to transmit large data volumes in a short time and utilize advanced network applications, for example, computer grids and end-to-end services, and cooperate in mutual projects in real time. A total of 34 countries is participating in the project, and the GN2 network connects 30 national research and education networks (NRENs) throughout Europe.

During the meeting of the NREN Policy Committee that took place on October 25 in Riga, Latvia, the following colleagues from partner national research and education networks were elected to the Executive Committee together with Jan Gruntorád: Klaus Ullmann (DFN, Germany), Ivan Marich (CARNet, Croatia), Marko Bonach (ARNES, Slovenia), and Erik-Jan Bos (SURFnet, Netherlands). Jan Gruntorád held his position in the Executive Committee, in which he has served since 2004. "I consider it not only a personal success, but especially an acknowledgement of the present work of the entire CESNET Association, which earned a very significant reputation in the European professional network community," said Mr. Gruntorád. The term of the new Executive Committee will end in three years, i.e. together with the planned completion of the GN2 project.

The CESNET Association was established by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Currently, it is financed mainly from resources of the government's Research and Development Council and from resources of its members. The Association addresses the research and development of information and communication technologies and it builds and develops the CESNET 2 national giga-bite optical network intended for research and education. Thanks to the research activities and achieved results, the CESNET Association represents the Czech Republic in the project of building a pan-European network, GÉANT2, and in other international projects.