SingAREN Celebrates 22 Years of Growth and Impact
On 27 November 2025, SingAREN hosted its 2025 Year-End Dinner Celebration at the Hopscotch, a cosy restaurant nestled amidst the lush greenery of Gardens by the Bay. The warm ambience, vibrant conversations, and close-knit gathering of members and partners made it a memorable evening of appreciation, reflection, and celebration.
SingAREN marks its 22nd year in 2025. Established in 2003, SingAREN continues to operate Singapore’s national research and education network, dedicated to supporting the evolving needs of the local R&E community.
During the evening’s address by SingAREN president, Jon Lau, he shared that SingAREN’s network footprint has expanded not only across Singapore but also internationally — strengthening our position as a key regional hub. This progress is built on the collective efforts of past and present leadership teams who have contributed tirelessly over the years.
A Fruitful Year for SingAREN
The year 2025 has been especially meaningful for the organisation. One of the major highlights was the continued support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) for the SingAREN Lightwave Internet Exchange (SLIX).
We are thankful to NRF, which has funded SLIX since 2013. NRF has approved an additional 2.5 years of funding (until 31 December 2027) for SingAREN to embark on the next phase of SLIX’s infrastructure upgrade. With this upgrade, the SLIX backbone is now capable of supporting up to 400G of bandwidth — enabling high-performance network connectivity for both local and international research collaborations.
SingAREN is proud to share that we have been awarded the Cyber Trust Mark (Tier 3) by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA). This recognition affirms our robust cybersecurity governance, strong operational practices, and our unwavering commitment to safeguarding Singapore’s R&E digital infrastructure and data.
We also took this opportunity to present plaques of appreciation to two supportive partners, Fortinet Singapore and Arista Networks; for their contributions to SingAREN in the areas of Cybersecurity and advancing our network infrastructure.
Figure 1 – From left: Jon Lau (President, SingAREN), Joyce Loh (Sales Lead for Public Sector, Fortinet), Chairman Mr. Quek, Ivan Guoh (Regional Sales Manager, Arista Networks), and Francis Lee (Vice-President, SingAREN).
Tokens of appreciation were presented to Joyce and Ivan for their contributions to SingAREN.
As we move forward, SingAREN remains committed to working closely with our members, partners, and the broader research and education community. Together, we will continue to champion advanced network applications, cybersecurity capability development, and cutting-edge technologies that support Singapore’s digital and scientific ambitions.
Figure 2 A special warm evening with our guests, friends, and partners
The evening concluded with a delightful spread of western cuisine and drinks. Guests enjoyed an array of hearty dishes, from grilled meats to salad to cute eclairs prepared by Hopscotch— a perfect complement to the warm camaraderie of the night.
Explore more moments from the event in the photo gallery here.