Welcome to CERN

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Welcome to CERN

International Workshop onAfrican Research
Education NetworkingSeptember 25-27 2005 ITU,
UNU and CERN
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Origin of CERN

• The Mission of CERN (1954)The Organization
  shall provide for collaboration among European
  States in nuclear research of a pure scientific
  and fundamental character, and in research
  essentially related thereto.
• The Organization shall have no concern with work
  for military requirements and the results of its
  experimental and theoretical work shall be
  published CERN Convention

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CERN in Numbers

• 2500 staff
• 6500 users
• 500 Fellows and Associates

• Member States Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the
  Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
  Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands,
  Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain,
  Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• Observers India, Israel, Japan, the Russian
  Federation, the United States of America, Turkey,
  the European Commission and Unesco

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CERN collaborates with the Universities globally
732
4231 MS
722
100
30

50
1932 NMS
50
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CERN 20 Member States 2400 staff500 fellows,
paid associates collaborates with around
500 institutes with 6500 scientists
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The Web

• Was a response to the needs of a distributed
  collaborating community
• And saved time and effort in fetching
  information from other places
• It made sharing information so much easier
• CERN supports actions to make contents of
  publicly funded education and research freely
  accessible on the web, and to connect all
  universities with sufficient bandwidth that they
  can exploit this information.
• Transparent access to information
• Independent of and removing barriers of space and
  time

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Why did CERN get involved in WSIS?

• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
  issued a challenge to the worlds scientists to
  address the clear inequalities in scientific
  activities between advanced and developing
  countries.
• Present the vision with which most of these
  technologies had been developed by the scientific
  community ie publically funded research should be
  openly available

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(http//cern.ch/rsis )
Result Education, Training and Knowledge are
Keys to Development ICT are the means of storage
and access, make us virtual neighbours and enable
close collaborations of distant partners
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RSIS

• Key themes that emerged from RSIS
• - that fundamental scientific information be made
  freely available
• - that the software tools for disseminating this
  information be also made freely available
• - that networking infrastructure for distributing
  this information be established world-wide
• - that training of people and equipment to use
  this information be provided in the host nations
• .

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Objectives of the present workshop

• To enhance the capabilities of African academic
  and scientific institutions to take advantage of
  the opportunities associated with the emergence
  of the global information society.
• ?         To strengthen collaboration between
  academic and scientific institutions across
  Africa and globally through exploring and
  implementing various measures to improve network
  connectivity and extend affordable and easy ICT
  access and services.
• ?         To enhance cooperation with similar
  planned and existing initiatives and networks by
  promoting transparency, inclusiveness,
  collaboration and efficiency.

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Concrete objectives of the AFUNET workshop

• ? To consult with African universities on their
  needs and objectives.
• ? To build and strengthen collaboration with
  these universities.
• ? To compile a report based on the case studies
  that gives a joint description.
• ? Establish a common understanding of financial,
  technical, services, organizational and content
  issues.
• ? Discuss and agree on the business principles
  applicable in a future AFUNET.
• Develop a strategic plan that describes the way
  forward.