Federal Public Services (FPSs) are connected by Belnet to one another and to the Internet via FedMAN (Federal Metropolitan Area Network). FedMAN is an essential part of the federal government's IT infrastructure and was fully integrated into the Belnet network about 10 years ago. Recently, in line with the rest of the Belnet network, the FedMAN ring has been running entirely on new equipment from Ciena. Tom De Clercq, one of our network architects, explains the benefits of this renewal and how the network team brought this project to a successful conclusion.

Through EOSC Focus, Belnet is deepening its commitment to Open Science and making this more concrete. EOSC stands for European Open Science Cloud. Belnet, through the EOSC Focus project, is an integral part of the EOSC ecosystem and is therefore best placed to inform Belgian knowledge institutions about European developments within EOSC.

Laura Standaert is Data Steward at UGent for the Life Sciences & Medicine cluster, which includes the Faculties of Medicine, Health Sciences, Veterinary Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Together with four other Data Stewards and two Data Curators, she works within the Open Science Team to provide professional support to researchers (from PhD level upwards) in the management and preservation of research data.

OCRE is not just a framework contract, it is also a tool offering researchers the opportunity to receive support for their project. Two projects led by Belgian universities have recently won funding. This is notably the case for the iCANDID 3.0 SSH FAIR Data Hub project at KULeuven, led by Leen D’Haenens, in collaboration with Roxanne Weys co-promotor and technical lead.

Kristiaan De Greve is Programme Director of quantum computing at IMEC, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering Science at KU Leuven and visiting researcher at Harvard University. He obtained his engineering degree in electrical engineering from KU Leuven and earned his PhD on quantum bits and quantum repeaters at Stanford University. His scientific interests cover a broad spectrum, from advanced materials research, quantum mechanics and cryptography to artificial intelligence. Belnet spoke with him about the future of quantum computing, QKD and cryptography.