Europe

Eske Willerslev, one of the world’s leading experts in ancient DNA, DNA degradation, and evolutionary biology, is using powerful DNA sequencing technology to reveal fundamentally new insights, reconstructing the past 50.000 years of human history.

The University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and SURF are collaborating on a campus network infrastructure optimized for sending research data. The aim is to create a blueprint for an architecture to help researchers collaborate on data-intensive research. The first use case is focusing on crop genome data.

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) near Cambridge, UK, distributes datasets worldwide using R&E connectivity. This biological data enables the discovery of new drugs, new diagnostics and increasingly new agro-chemicals. The Institute's work, which includes the 1000 Genomes Project, has generated petabytes of data and this growth is showing no signs of abating.

A dedicated line between two supercomputers in Denmark allows biomedical researchers to share data faster and easier than before, helping them carry out their research into the relationship between genetics and psychiatric illnesses.

Slovenian researchers analysed various aspects of the biology of extremophilic fungi, which can act as pathogens that are harmful to humans and used the same methods in their winning solution in data mining for the European Space Agency.

Something the general public is unaware of is that several Swiss research groups were instrumental in proving the existence of the Higgs boson, and all of them rely on SWITCHlan to transfer data.

In 2009, NASA launched the Kepler space observatory to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. For four and a half years, Kepler photographed a small 10-by-10 degrees section of the sky, taking snapshots each minute. "This is a goldmine of data, and we won’t see anything quite like it in the foreseeable future," explains Rasmus Handberg from the Stellar Astrophysics Centre at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Answering questions about the origins of Greek culture and athletics are at the heart of the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project in Arcadia, Greece. Collaborative efforts within the R&E networking community have helped make the lives of the many archeologists in the field easier by bringing high-speed internet to the site.

Every year medical students in France take a crucial exam, The National Classifying Exam, which determines the specialization they pursue and often where they will live. To address its shortcomings, this exam has now being modernised and digitized, and the French national research and education network is responsible for mission critical infrastructure.

Big data are found in all segments of society. Even the Dutch higher education sector is increasingly recognising the potential for the vast volumes of data that it has at its disposal. What opportunities does learning analytics offer? And what challenges are the early adopters facing? Are there any runners out there who still do not track their performance with an app?

The Global Audition Training Programme aims to expand the skill set of student musicians, no matter where in the world they live, and prepare them for today’s multifaceted professional landscape.

Helina Emeru is chief technology officer of Ethiopian research and education network EthERnet. In October 2016, she joined 9 colleagues from around the world at the NORDUnet conference as part of a new Knowledge Exchange Fellowship program.