MRnet Digital Economy Submission

Summary

MRnet strongly supports the joint submission to the Digital Economy Consultation by the Canadian Digital Media Network, Canadian Research Knowledge Network, Canadian University Council of CIOs, CANARIE and Compute Canada. An integrated strategy, vision and plan for the digital economy supporting education at all levels as well as research in many disciplines is required in all regions of the country.

Submission

The Role of the Digital Economy Higher Education and Research

MRnet is Manitoba's Regional Advanced Research and Education Network.

MRnet provides a very–high–speed, fiber optic network linking its research and education members to the world's R&E networks.

The MRnet network is provided to support research, education and advanced application development among Manitoba research, education and industry organizations.

MRnet is an incorporated not for profit organization supported by membership fees, federal funding from CANARIE, in kind support from the University of Manitoba and funding from the Province of Manitoba.

MRnet offers a reliable, high–speed communications network to its member institutions with no costs associated with the amount of traffic generated by an institution.

MRnet Manitoba Research Network's role and mandate is the advancement of high speed research and education networking infrastructure and applications in Manitoba.

MRnet currently connects all of the post secondary institutions in the province as well as other research organizations. It also connects K–12 schools through Merlin, a provincial agency which manages networking to that constituency. MRnet has gigapop points of presence in Winnipeg, Brandon, Thompson and The Pas (2011). The connection to CANARIE is in Winnipeg.

MRnet strongly supports the joint submission to the Digital Economy Consultation by the Canadian Digital Media Network, Canadian Research Knowledge Network, Canadian University Council of CIOs, CANARIE and Compute Canada. An integrated strategy, vision and plan for the digital economy supporting education at all levels as well as research in many disciplines is required in all regions of the country.

We agree that this strategy must include development of an integrated digital infrastructure for research, innovation and education that includes;

• the creation of and support for new coordination mechanisms that cut across organizational, discipline and jurisdictional boundaries;
• the adoption of an integrated approach to planning and funding;
• the creation of new approaches for managing sustainability;
• the elimination of institutional, regional and disciplinary disparities, especially relating to access; and development of the analytical, modeling and collaborative skills needed to use the shared resources and digital infrastructure effectively.

As noted in the joint submission there have been significant investments in the Canadian digital infrastructure for many years. Since 1993 CANARIE and the ORAN's including MRnet have built an pan Canadian RIE network which is the envy of many other countries, put in place good and workable governance structures, and have facilitated and encouraged use of the RIE infrastructure in all fields of academic endeavour. We build on a solid foundation.

We agree that there must be additional resources and services in the Canadian digital RIE infrastructure to meet new evolving requirements in research. New developments in collaborative tools, sensor based environmental and ecological research using the network, rich media, new network architectures and middleware services and expansion of the network user community to new RIE communities will require expansion and enhancement of the current RIE milieu regionally and nationally.

MRnet supports the call for an integrated strategy that facilitates the alignment of resources and priorities in research, education and innovation sectors. MRnet encourages federal support for CANARIE. This is vitally important to all Canadian regional networks, and to the large community of researchers, faculty, students and industrial partners that rely on a modern national advanced network infrastructure to allow them to participate in the global digital economy.

We encourage strategies and service delivery models that recognize the integrated network requirements of research, discovery and innovation. An integrated national strategy for providing sustainable ongoing funding for the RIE infrastructure needs to be developed so planning for the evolution of the network can take place over longer time frames.

We encourage development of strategies to address and minimize institutional, regional and disciplinary disparities in access to this infrastructure so all regions of Canada may benefit from the digital economy.

In summary we feel development of the digital economy must be a high priority for government in respect to policy development and funding. MRnet strongly supports new approaches to these important issues and is willing to work with involved organizations in this effort. We have an opportunity for significant progress and it is now time to move forward.