Connecting with culture at the Eastern Partnership E-infrastructures Conference

Yerevan hosted a cultural-technological ‘first’ in Armenia as choirs in Italy and Armenia performed together live thanks to data transfer technology introduced in Armenia by the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Connect (EaPConnect) project. The performance took place at EaPEC 2019, the 4^th Eastern Partnership E-infrastructures Conference on 25-26 September.

Organised by EaPConnect under the theme ‘Connecting with Culture’, the event opened with the concert performed by choirs in Yerevan and in Venice, singing together in real time despite a distance of around 5,000 km.

EaPEC 2019 featured a number of high-level speakers and a keynote presentation on ‘the transformative power of research and education networks’.

Connecting with Culture

Around the theme of ‘Connecting with Culture’ EaPEC 2019 highlighted how e-infrastructures not only support ‘big science’, but also digital libraries and cultural heritage, humanities and social sciences, as well as performing arts collaborations across borders. The concert brought this theme alive, connected by dedicated high-capacity research and education networks combined with ‘LoLa’ low latency data transmission technology, which was developed in Italy and introduced in Armenia through the EaPConnect project. 

Other highlights

Technological, ethical, societal and policy aspects of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence were also discussed at the conference, as well as opportunities for Armenia in EU funding programmes and in the European Open Science Cloud. 

The winners of the 2019 Enlighten Your Research programme for the Eastern Partnership – EYR@EaP2019 – were also presented with awards for their project proposals. The seven winners were from Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.

EaPEC 2019 and the ‘Connecting with Culture’ concert were hosted by ASNET-AM, the Armenian national research and education network (NREN), which is a partner in the EaPConnect project alongside NRENs from the other Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries – Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine.

EaPConnect organises EaPEC as part of its goal to interconnect the Eastern Partnership and EU research and education communities. EaPEC 2019 was an opportunity for Armenian researchers, policy makers and academics and e-infrastructure experts to meet with their peers to find common ground and build community towards future collaborations.

The EaPConnect project aims to create a regional research and education network in the EU’s Eastern Partner countries namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The overall objective is to decrease the digital divide, improve intra-regional connectivity and facilitate the participation of local scientists, students and academics in global research and education collaborations.

Press release