There is neither sufficient facility available in the country for advance research and development in ICT and in other important subjects nor any formal research and education network exists in the country so that available resources in the globe can be access efficiently. Due to the lack of research infrastructure people are compelled to go abroad for research work and significant numbers of people are flying day to day. Government, non-government, private organizations and individuals have been spending huge budget for research and higher education. Moreover, majority of such people never come back to the country. It has great impact in country?s economy as well as human resource development for country?s overall development?.

Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN)has been established as a facilitator to support for advanced research and education network through the means of Information and Communication Technology and as a knowledge center to support good ICT initiatives and researcher in the country. This entity has been established as a non-profit network under the Prime College, affiliated to Tribhuwan National University, collaboration with various organizations.

Physical location or geography in this age of information technology is not very important; there is no any place in the world which cannot be connected through todays available ICT infrastructure such as satellite communication and wireless technology. Todays development in ICT has demonstrated the potentiality and strength of ICT through existing global network such as Internet for knowledge and resource sharing. There are also many other examples such as online video conferencing, tele-medicine, distance learning, e-business, online environment monitoring system, early warning system for disaster mitigation, etc. which have been successfully implemented in various parts of the world. Therefore, developing countries like Nepal can have also access to resource and knowledge sharing capability same as developed world have. It is the great opportunity for developing countries like Nepal due to advanced development in ICT.

Advanced development in ICT has made possibility of accessing and sharing information any where in the world but accessing the ICT itself is a greatest challenge for countries like Nepal due to its huge cost involvement and lack of technical expertise and visionary capability.

Unavailability of high speed dedicated network is key obstacle to fulfill the objective of NREN. As a member, NREN of APAN supports high speed dedicated network infrastructure and connectivity service. NREN?s interest in APAN is to get support for establishing the academic and research network infrastructure in Nepal and to get opportunity in establishing partnership with various organizations and individual professionals working in ICT sector for knowledge sharing. Furthermore, NREN has following interests in collaboration with APAN.

- Establishing connectivity for knowledge and information sharing.
- Using APAN network as a primary ICT infrastructure for advanced research.
- Providing access to have-nots.
- Providing ICT infrastructure to support development research and studies.
- Promoting and supporting APAN and its associated.

Prime Information Technology Vision is ?to recognizes Prime as a premier provider of infrastructure, services and support to facilitate the innovative use of state of the art information technology for teaching, learning, research and outreach?. Prime believes that Information and Communication Technology will be the key enabler in a dynamic support for the seamless integration of teaching, learning, research, service and administrative roles in the college to provide a cohesive and efficient learning, research and working environment.

One of the main objectives of Prime College is to provide broad support for basic collaboration technologies and implement more advanced technologies in support of research which will contribute and benefit from initiatives to develop national computational grid. Research support includes ? high speed network, advanced data storage and management service, high performance computing and computation facilities for researchers. Prime college has established a non-profit network ?Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN)? to fulfill the objective. This NREN composes of illustrious personalities working in information and communication technologies, research and education sector, development management sector, etc. in Nepal.

Establishment of high speed dedicated network to support development of national computational grid for research and education.

Objectives

- Establishing connectivity for knowledge and information sharing Information and knowledge sharing is very important among researchers and professionals working in the filed of networking in ICT. NREN felt there is great lack of a network, which helps in establishing network and cooperation with researchers and professionals working in the field of ICT around the world. One of the specific objectives is to establish a network infrastructure in cooperation with APAN, so that researchers and professionals working in the field of networking in ICT in Nepal will have efficient access to share information and knowledge with APAN partners as people around the world working in this area.

- Providing access to have-nots - There is a great gap between haves and have-nots of access in reaching information network. Majority of students studying in private schools and colleges in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal have access to internet but most of the economically weak students study in public schools and colleges do not have. NREN in support of APAN network will provide access to public schools and colleges in urban and rural areas of the country. NREN will provide access and technical support to such 10 schools and colleges in initial phase and will extend to 200 plus such institutes within 3 years.

- Establishing NREN as a knowledge center to support good ICT initiatives Several ICT initiatives have been taken by government and non-organizations to connect all rural and urban areas of the country in global network, lack of technical knowledge is one of challenging issues in sustainability of such initiatives. NREN will establish knowledge centre to promote successful ICT initiatives taken in different parts of the world and to provide knowledge base technical solution to support ICT initiatives taken to connect unconnected people and areas in rural and urban areas of the country. Tele-centers established by government in rural areas of the country, wireless networking to connect. The Members of this Network as follows: Tribhwan University, the oldest university in Nepal (www.tribhuvan-university.edu.np), Institute of Engineering (www.pc.ioe.edu.np ), Health Net Nepal (www.healthnet.org.np), Nagi village/Nepal Wireless Project (www.nepalwireless.net) Rural Remote Area, Himalayan Region, The elevation of Nangi village is about 27,345 ft) research on wireless LAN with global network and Madan Purushkar Foundation?s (www.mpp.org.np ) project of localization of operating system are some of the good initiatives taken in Nepal in ICT (Nepali version of Linux), Nepal Internet Exchange Point (www.npix.net.np ), SNS Network Solution (www.sns.com.np), Geospatial Systems Pvt. Ltd. - working in the Field of GIS and IT area related and recently started doing research in Web Mapping and research initiating through Prime College. Center for Integrated Urban Development (CIUD)- NGO working in efficient urban management and also have planned to establish center as a research and education to versioned Urban Observatory.

- Providing ICT infrastructure to support development research and studies ? ICT is a great tool in promoting, encouraging and supporting development activities. NREN in support of APAN will provide ICT infrastructure for advanced research and trainings to non-profit organizations and individuals working in development issues like - sustainable development, women?s empowerment, environment management, media coverage, cooperation, renewable energy studies and advanced research activities.

- Promoting and supporting APAN and its associated ? APAN and organizations associated with it have been involving in network research and development from several years. NREN will support in hosting and organizing programs, events, conferences, workshops, etc. to promote APAN in Nepal and to disseminate research findings of APAN and its associate around the world. NREN will also contribute in content development and knowledge management related to network. It will also contribute in exploring prospectus for further research and development of APAN and its associates.