Abu-Ghazaleh:  ASREN Supports Joining Eduroam and Identity Federation

AMMAN ---- October5, 2015 ---The Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN), headed by its Chairman HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, held a specialized workshop on "Joining Eduroam and Identity Federation" with the attendance of representatives of scientific research networks and universities in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Palestine in addition to Jordan.

The workshop, that took place at the premises of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University, aimed at empowering staff who work in research and education networks and equipping them with appropriate technology necessary for setting up and using Eduroam networks (Eduroam) to allow academics have access to research and education networks during travel and movement through these networks.

The workshop also aimed at enabling participants to develop Identity Federation systems and to join other networks around the world to become part of the Education Global Authentication Infrastructure (eduGAIN).

One of the objectives for holding the workshop was to ensure the provision of research resources and applications and help researchers and academics have access to classified databases, which mainly rely on Identity Federation such as ASREN Science Gateway, in addition to other scientific research portals as well as their applications.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh said that ASREN's initiative was launched with the aim of establishing common connectivity between the national scientific research networks in the Arab world and its operation and management pointing out that ASREN supports Eduroam Networks and Identity Federation systems.

ASREN Director Engineer Yousef Al-Turman said that the organization of this workshop comes in line with ASREN’s role in the development of research and education infrastructure in the Arab world and to enable the scientific research networks in the Arab countries to cope with the developed countries in terms of provision of services necessary to researchers and academics, facilitate access to research resources around the world and the safe utilization of such resources, and encourage them to interact and collaborate with researchers, academics and research institutions from all over the world.

The workshop was held in cooperation with EUMEDCONENCT Project, and the Middleware for Collaborative Applications and Global virtual Communities -MAGIC Project; both funded by the European Commission.

About ASREN

ASREN, the association of the Arab region National Research and Education Network, was launched to establish, operate, and manage common connection between the National Scientific Research networks in the Arab world. Its establishment was officially announced during the 3rd Euro-med conference on e-infrastructures held in March 2010. It aims at implementing, managing and extending sustainable Pan-Arab e-Infrastructures dedicated for the research and education communities to boost scientific research and cooperation in member countries through the provision of world-class e-Infrastructures and e-services.