Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Surprise meSurprise meSubscribe
Encyclopedia

National research and education network

Internet service provider type

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
4 min read
Source updated August 12, 2026

A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.

It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backbone network, often offering dedicated channels for individual research projects.

In recent years, with the widespread availability of high-speed internet services, their importance has diminished, although many NRENs have expanded their remit of services to include areas such as trust and identity, security, automation, and cloud offerings, while others have evolved into fully fledged digital transformation agencies for their respective national governments.

01List of NRENs by geographic area

East and Southern Africa

North Africa

West and Central Africa

Asia Pacific

North America

  • United States, although advocated since the 1980s, the U.S. does not have one single NREN.
NameType
Internet2national
National LambdaRailnational [closed]
vBNSnational [closed]
Edge state (New Jersey)
ESnetnational
NERENregional (New England)
CAAREN regional (Washington metropolitan area)
CENICstate (California)
CENstate (Connecticut)
NERENregional (Midwest)
Illinois Century Networkstate (Illinois)
KanRENstate (Kansas)
LEARNstate (Texas)
Merit Networkstate (Michigan)
NEROstate (Oregon)
NCRENstate (North Carolina)
NYSERNetstate (New York)
OARnetstate (Ohio)
OneNetstate (Oklahoma)
OSHEANstate (Rhode Island)
PeachNetstate (Georgia)
PennRENstate (Pennsylvania)
THEnetstate (Texas)
UENstate (Utah)
WVNETstate (West Virginia)
WiscNet state (Wisconsin)
  • Canada
NameType
CANARIEnational
ACORN-NLprovincial (Newfoundland and Labrador)
ACORN-NSprovincial (Nova Scotia)
BCNETprovincial (British Columbia)
Cyberaprovincial (Alberta)
GTAnetprovincial (Ontario)
ECNprovincial (New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island)
MRnetprovincial (Manitoba)
ORIONprovincial (Ontario)
RISQprovincial (Quebec)
SRNetprovincial (Saskatchewan)

Latin America

Caribbean

  • C@ribNET - Caribbean NREN
  • TTRENT - Trinidad and Tobago NREN
  • JREN - Jamaica NREN
  • RADEI - NREN of the Dominican Republic

Europe

Nordic countries

Middle East

Central Asia

High-speed Fibre Optic Data Link to ALMA and REUNA.
High-speed Fibre Optic Data Link to ALMA and REUNA.
Watch videos about National research and education networkExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “National research and education network”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.

Continue exploring

Related topics

Information superhighway

The information superhighway is a late-20th-century descriptive phrase that aspirationally referred to the increasingly mainstream availability of digital communication systems. To some extent, it is associated with United States Senator and later Vice President Al Gore.

Libraries and the US National Research and Education Network

Libraries operate as part of the technological infrastructure that supports the National Research and Education Network, acting as an electronic safety net for the American public to guarantee basic access to electronic information. Public libraries are in particular capable to take on this role, as they already serve such a role in a print-based society.