The Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on May 29 with GéANT Vereniging, Europe's leading collaboration on network and related infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe's economic growth and competitiveness.

The agreement renews the two parties' longstanding relationship and their commitment to continuing joint EU-China connectivity provision beyond 2021. The connectivity provision will include exploring the possibility of further capacity upgrades to 100G, and will explore optimised transit solutions for CNIC to Africa and Central Asia.

The MoU also focuses on identifying new cooperation opportunities in the context of China Science and Technology Cloud and European Open Science Cloud initiatives, such as sharing available information and experiences in the areas of governance, operation, and sustainability plans.

CNIC and GéANT also agreed to jointly work on identifying, engaging with and supporting user communities - such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment, Vera C. Rubin Observatory (VRO), and so on.

The signing of the MOU will not only deepen the network cooperation of the two parties, but open up good prospects on future cloud service cooperation and provide a solid foundation to support China-EU multidisciplinary applications.