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CANARIE Year in Review 2023-24

With your support as a CANARIE Member, we were proud to achieve the following significant milestones across our programs and initiatives this year: 

Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN)

To support national and international research collaboration, we:

  • Made the NREN whole, by connecting Nunavut using world-leading Low Earth Orbit (LEO) technology. 
  • Continued the evolution of network infrastructure and saw an estimated 10% increase in traffic. 
  • Established direct connections with cloud service providers to improve research and education connectivity to data centres. 
  • Continued to lead the development of the Global Research and Education Network (GREN) dynamic map. 
  • Held the sixth annual NREN Assembly, bringing together staff from CANARIE and our thirteen provincial and territorial partners to support the coordinated evolution of Canada’s NREN and the services we collectively deliver.  
  • Launched a competitive funding call to our regional NREN Partners to create, extend, and maintain their network infrastructure and capabilities. 

Cybersecurity

To help secure Canada’s research and education sector from growing cyber threats, we:  

  • Delivered an unprecedented view of the sector’s cybersecurity capabilities through the inaugural National Cybersecurity Assessment, completed by over 140 Research and Education (R&E) organizations. Detailed reports from the Assessment lay the groundwork for making data-informed investment decisions to address cybersecurity priorities at the institutional, regional, and national levels.  
  • Continued our integration of the CanSSOC team and services into CANARIE’s Cybersecurity Program. We are working with our NREN partners and 23 institutions on a pilot of Canada’s federated Security Operations Centre (CanSSOC); lessons from the pilot will shape how CanSSOC is delivered to 220+ research & education organizations, regardless of size or existing capabilities. 
  • Launched the sixth initiative under the Cybersecurity Initiatives Program (CIP), extending protections from the CIRA DNS Firewall to staff and faculty devices beyond campus networks, wherever the internet is accessed.     
  • Continue to evolve our community engagement and the guidance we receive through the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, with a goal of developing a community-endorsed, sector-wide cybersecurity strategy. 
  • Launched the second annual CIP Survey to continue to evolve funded services to meet the needs of our stakeholders. 
  • Hosted a pilot of the Canadian SecuR&E Forum, laying the groundwork for a new conference dedicated to strengthening the diverse community that’s collaborating to secure Canada’s R&E sector. 

Identity and Access Management

To enable Canada’s researchers and post-secondary students, staff, and faculty to securely connect to eduroam and to a global catalogue of academic services, we: 

  • Continued to provide a proof-of-concept for integrating Multifactor Authentication in our Federated Identity Management service. 
  • Continued to increase the number of public, non-academic locations that are broadcasting eduroam, expanding access to libraries, municipal offices, arenas, and airports. 
  • Authenticated over 450 million logins to eduroam, keeping the R&E community connected securely across Canada. 

Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR)

To help Canadian businesses adopt cloud technologies to accelerate their product development and time to market, we: 

  • Increased participation in the DAIR Cloud Program to over 2,000 Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), providing access to cloud resources at no cost. 
  • Released a new BoosterPack – a curated package of resources and tools to support early-stage startups adopt transformative technologies – with three more BoosterPacks in development. 
  • Provided DAIR Cloud users with 16 new cloud services to help maximize the power of cloud technologies, with more new services planned for deployment in 2024. 

Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) Evolution

To support of the Government of Canada’s DRI Strategy and the broader DRI ecosystem, we: 

  • Worked closely with the Government of Canada to renew our mandate as an essential pillar of the DRI Strategy through continued delivery of the CANARIE Network, the NREN, cybersecurity, and identity and access management services, and initiatives that support private sector innovation.  
  • Continued to work closely with the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (The Alliance), to help align and integrate our approaches and programming.  

2023 CANARIE Summit

To highlight Canada’s evolving digital economy, showcase innovation, and strengthen connections across the research, education, and innovation communities, we: 

  • Welcomed leaders from the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors for a day and a half of thought-provoking presentations and discussions focused on the disruptive technologies impacting our lives and workplaces. The average rating of attendees’ experience at the event was 4.8 out of 5. 

Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN)

To support Canadian innovation in information and communications technologies, we: 

  • Continued to provide support for CENGN’s activities to foster the development of next generation network technologies and solutions. 
  • Collaborated on the development of network monitoring capabilities for the CANARIE Network. 

Thank you for your continued support of CANARIE. Your Membership and engagement help to maximize the impact of our programs and initiatives, and continues to advance Canada’s research, education, and innovation sectors.