The
NIIF Programme today and tomorrow - in view of the international relations
Lajos
Balint
Abstract
The contribution briefly investigates the present
status and future development of the Hungarian National Information
Infrastructure Development (NIIF) Programme, in view of the development trends
of the European academic and research networks. After a short overview of the
international relations of the NIIF Programme and the role of the Hungarian
research network within the European research networking arena, a summary of
the most recent events in international research networking is provided - events
resulting in new challenges for the internal research networking developments
in Hungary. Some of the activities within TERENA, the NREN PC, and DANTE are
described in short, with special emphasis on the status and future of the GEANT
project, and on the foreseeable effect of FP6, the recently launched 6th RTD
Framework Programme of the EU.
Besides listing the major results and characterising
the present status of the Hungarian research networking activities, the
foreseeable tasks of the coming period, and the conditions of solving those
tasks, are also outlined. It is shown that the present level of the internal
network as well as services and applications is practically equivalent to the
international leading edge, and this level can be kept in every respect also in
the future, provided that the financial support on behalf of the stately budget
corresponds at least to the minimum demands stemming from the development
goals.
Keeping in mind the future international trends of
research networking, the contribution examines if the internal research
networking development activities can cope with the related international
development. The question is, whether the pace of the development in Hungary
will be enough for remaining in the international leading edge, or the NIIF
Programme will fall out of that leading edge, which would result in a step by
step degradation of the research network in Hungary. This would also mean that
the extremely important positive influence of the Programme on the overall development
of informatics in Hungary, on the competitiveness of the Hungarian economy, and
also on the success of joining the EU by the country, would disappear.
The final message of the contribution is that, by
taking into account the international situation and development trends in the
field of research networking, the basic goals of how to proceed in research
networking in Hungary can be well set, but the reality of achieving these goals
is depending on what the funding level on behalf of the stately budget, in
accordance with the governmental decree about the NIIF Programme, will be.