About SingAREN

Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network (SingAREN) started as a national project funded by the government in 1997 to take on the challenge of ensuring that Singapore research and education (R&E) community is connected to the international R&E community. Being the national research and education network (REN), it has maintained closed working relationship with global Next Generation Internet (NGI) community such as Internet2 and APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network). SingAREN has high bandwidth and direct network connectivity to a number of RENs: TEIN2, Abilene, ASCC and NICT.

As a project, SingAREN was initially funded by the then Telecom Authority of Singapore (TAS) and National Science and Technology Board (NSTB), which has since evolved to the current Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) respectively.

On 1 October 2003, SingAREN was officially registered as a Society to widen its roles to better serve the user community. The objectives of SingAREN are:

1. To be an advocate and champion for advanced network applications and technology in Singapore
2. To be a platform for collective representation of the community of research and education networks (RENs) in Singapore
3. To facilitate cost-competitive adoption of advance Internet technologies for the research and education community in Singapore
   

Two classes of memberships are available as follows:

(a) Individual Members - open to any individual who:
i. is at least 18 years old
ii. has an interest in advanced network applications and technology

(b) Institutional Members - open to any organization that has an interest in advanced network applications and technology

SingAREN, as a society, has received strong support from the Institutes of Higher Learning and researchers for its network connectivity and activities. Special interest groups (SIGs) are being formed by the members to focus on specific areas such as IP convergence, e-learning and life sciences. These SIGs are intended to develop and deploy services that are beneficial to the community. It also sees the society’s need to engage industry partnership in its projects, thus, establishing closer ties with the industry.

There will be more challenges ahead for SingAREN as a newly developed society, but with the support from the community and dedication of the management committee, SingAREN will continue to take the role in leading Singapore’s transition to the next generation internet.