National research and education network


A national research and education network is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.
It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backbone network, often offering dedicated channels for individual research projects.
In recent years, with the widespread availability of high-speed internet services, their importance has diminished, although many NRENs have expanded their remit of services to include areas such as trust and identity, security, automation, and cloud offerings, while others have evolved into fully fledged digital transformation agencies for their respective national governments.

List of NRENs by geographic area

East and Southern Africa

North Africa

  • - Arab States Research and Education Network
  • TUREN - Tunisian NREN
  • MARWAN - Moroccan NREN
  • ENREN - Egyptian NREN
  • - Algerian NREN
  • SudREN - Sudanese NREN
  • - Somali NREN

West and Central Africa

  • - West and Central African Research and Education Network
  • - Ghanaian NREN
  • - Togolese NREN
  • - Ghanaian NREN
  • MaliREN - Mali NREN
  • - Nigerien NREN
  • RITER - Côte d'Ivoire NREN
  • SnRER - Senegalese NREN
  • - Nigerian NREN
  • - Nigerian NREN
  • LRREN - Liberia Research and Education Network

Asia Pacific

North America

  • United States – although advocated since the 1980s, the U.S. does not have one single NREN.
  • Canada

Latin America

Caribbean

Europe

Nordic countries

  • NORDUnet - Nordic backbone network
  • * DeiC - Danish NREN
  • * FUNET - Finnish NREN
  • * RHnet - Icelandic NREN
  • * SUNET - Swedish NREN
  • * Sikt - Norwegian NREN

Middle East

Central Asia