KAREN project fund recipients announced

5 projects will receive total funding of $785,000 from the Capability Build Project Fund. The successful projects take full advantage of KAREN's capabilities, and will accelerate collaboration, skill development, and the use of KAREN.

Registration for the SC08 Education Program Summer workshops is now open and KAREN members can apply to the KAREN travel fund to help get you there.

The application deadline for making applications to the $50,000 building institutional capability component of the Capability Build Fund is fast approaching.

KAREN Members have been quick to take advantage of the REANNZ Capability Build Fund (CBF), with round two of the project fund now under consideration by judges on the Advisory Panel. An unenviable task judging a fund that is oversubscribed by 700%; but a strong indication that the KAREN community is recognising the need for capability growth to participate in the new potential offered through eResearch and education collaborations over KAREN.

The Institutional Capability Build Fund is now open for applications. The purpose of this negotiated round of the Capability Build Fund is to accelerate our members’ institutional capability to exploit KAREN’s full value. $50,000 per member institution is available to support staff time investment in KAREN capability development and awareness raising activities.

A reminder to all KAREN members to submit your applications to the Capability Build Project Fund by 30 November.

Registrations are now open for the second of two technical workshops on advanced video conferencing and collaboration over KAREN - 23 November, 9:00am - 5:00pm, University of Canterbury, Christchurch.

The second round of Capability Build Project fund opens today. The aim of the fund is to build institutional capability amongst KAREN's core members. The criteria for the fund have been revised to reflect the priorities identified in the recently released Advanced Network Capability Building Roadmap 2007 - 2009. The primary areas of focus are:

In the spirit of shared knowledge, three reports from KAREN community members on Capability Build Fund supported travel and event activities have recently been added to our website.

Science and education are evolving.  New advanced networking technologies are accelerating the pace of discovery and learning across the world.  The focus is shifting toward sharing data, applications and resources and enabling collaboration between institutions, and between the research sector and private industry. New tools, applications and skills are necessary to be fully enabled by KAREN.

ESR Senior Scientist Dr Brent Gilpin held a seminar recently describing the development of PulseNet international - a network of laboratories who generate DNA fingerprinting data on microbial pathogens and share this data electronically.

KAREN users Chris Brown and Mik Black from the University of Otago featured - along with KAREN itself - on Radio New Zealand National's Our Changing World programme this Thursday, 28 of June.

The progamme will be available as a stream for the coming month at the Radio New Zealand website.  It is also available as a podacast.  (Programme length 12'31'')

The third issue of our newsletter hyphen is out now.

A further round of applications is being sought for the KAREN Event Support and Travel Fund.

REANNZ has awarded over $2.6 million to ten projects in the first round of its Working Group and Development Fund. This fund is aimed at developing capability around the use of KAREN and advanced networking techniques.

The ten successful projects are led by eight KAREN member organisations, including five universities and three Crown research institutes, and span the fields of e-research, microbiology, earthquake engineering, bioinformatics, grid computing and the social sciences.

$82,000 has been awarded to seven successful applications to the first round of the Event Support and Travel Fund. The Event Support and Travel Fund is one of two funds comprising REANNZ's Capability Build Fund (CBF) – designed to help raise awareness and use of KAREN and advanced networking techniques.

The KAREN Capability Build Advisory Panel has kick started the process of developing a New Zealand Roadmap for professional skill development and technical capability to outline capability building activities that should be pursued over the next three to four years. The goal of this programme is to improve the outcomes for NZ education and research sectors using KAREN and developing related e-research infrastructure and services.

The 2006 KAREN Working Group and Development Fund application round closes at 4pm next Friday, 24 November 2006. This fund is part of an overall Capability Build Fund operated by REANNZ and administered by the Royal Society (http://www.rsnz.org/funding/karen/). The CBF is available to build awareness of the potential of KAREN though producing success stories and facilitating New Zealand access to international funding.

REANNZ's Capability Build Advisory Panel identifies opportunities to facilitate and fund training and pilot activities. The fund is now open for its first round of applications

Capability build fund activities will enhance the skills of people working with KAREN and support functional delivery opportunities, to build usage of the Research and Education Network.