Advance Network Board Appointed

14 September 2005

Advance Network Board Appointed

The Board of the company that will run New Zealand's new high-speed Advanced Network for the research and tertiary education sector has held its first meeting in Wellington.

The board members of the newly established Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Limited are:

- Dr James Watson (Chair), founder and current board member of Genesis Research & Development Corporation and current President of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
- Dr Rick Pridmore, Chief Executive of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
- Professor Warwick Clegg, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Information Technology, at Victoria University.
- Jane Taylor, a barrister from Queenstown.
- Carol Moffat, previously Ministry of Education's project manager of "Interactive Education", director of Multiserve Education Trust and Core Education Trust.

Operating as a not-for-profit limited liability company, its members will include New Zealand's tertiary education institutions, Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), and the National Library.

The Advanced Network it will oversee will comprise an optical network "backbone" linking research and education institutes in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin with regional connections to Hawkes Bay, Nelson and Rotorua.

The network will also connect with similar high-speed next generation research and education networks internationally through links between New Zealand and Australia and west coast of the United States.
The work to implement the Advanced Network has been led by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) and its Chief Executive, Dr Helen Anderson says the first board meeting represents a significant step in providing an important new tool for science and education in New Zealand.

"The Advanced Network is crucial in ensuring we have an environment that will attract and retain talented people in the research, science and technology sector. It will act as a catalyst for greater collaboration both here and with their colleagues overseas and enable researchers and educationalists to undertake work they could not have done here previously.

"It also promises to open up new scientific frontiers and it will bridge what has been a significant gap in New Zealand's research infrastructure," Dr Anderson says.
The board's first task is to consider tenders to provide the main international and national network and the inter-connection locations throughout the country.

The Advanced Network is expected to be in operation early next year.

Further background on the advanced network:
http://www.morst.govt.nz/uploadedfiles/Documents/Current%20work/ANbackground.pdf

ENDS