Last Wednesday, March 19, the Regional Government of Sardinia, following a proposal by President Alessandra Todde in agreement with the Regional Minister for General Affairs, Mariaelena Motzo, approved the draft memorandum of understanding between the Region and the Consortium GARR for the interconnection of the regional telematic network with the new high-speed GARR-T network. This represents an important step in strengthening the candidacy of the Sos Enattos site to host the future Einstein Telescope gravitational wave observatory, particularly in terms of connectivity for the future ET-SUnLab research center, whose project was presented in Lula (NU) on March 20.
GARR is the national ultra-high-capacity network dedicated to the education, research, and cultural communities. Its primary goal is to provide high-performance connectivity and develop innovative services for the daily activities of teachers, researchers, and students, as well as for international collaboration. GARR-T, in particular, is the next-generation GARR network, technologically advanced and distributed across the national territory with over 20,000 kilometers of fiber optics. The network is designed and managed by the Consortium GARR, a non-profit association established under the aegis of the Ministry of University and Research by CNR, ENEA, INFN, and all Italian universities represented by the CRUI Foundation, with numerous additional member institutions joining over time.
The interconnection of the GARR-T network with the regional network will provide advanced connectivity to support research, innovation, and competitiveness. According to the protocol’s provisions, access to the network will be available to major public and private research centers at the regional and national levels, healthcare research and innovation facilities, cultural institutions, museums, educational institutions, and other public entities of any order identified by the Region as strategic for the digital and technological development of the territory and research.
«Thanks to the new submarine connection and the expansion of the GARR-T network, Sardinia has the opportunity to become a hub for the national and international academic and scientific community. In view of the candidacy of the Sos Enattos site in Lula to host the Einstein Telescope, this will be an additional strength for our island», emphasized President Alessandra Todde.
The enhancement of the GARR-T network is supported by the PNRR TeRABIT project (proposed by INFN and OGS, with CINECA and GARR as partners), which aims to develop models for high-performance computing (HPC) usage and access, offering cutting-edge solutions for the Italian scientific community and network connections at the terabit-per-second level, and ICSC (coordinated by INFN), a national research center for the creation of an ecosystem dedicated to computing needs for the research system and the productive and social system.
Map of the GARR-T network with the interventions of PNRR projects (source: www.garr.it)