AKADEMSKA IN RAZISKOVALNA MREZA SLOVENIJE

Their core work

ARNES is Slovenia's national research and education network (NREN), providing high-speed internet connectivity and digital services to universities, research institutes, and schools across the country. As part of the GÉANT pan-European network, they operate backbone infrastructure linking Slovenian researchers to global academic networks. They also support national open science initiatives, high-performance computing access, and cybersecurity services for the research and education sector.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015-2018), ARNES focused on foundational connectivity — building transatlantic links (BELLA), running the GÉANT backbone, and integrating European cloud services (EOSC-hub). From 2019 onward, the focus shifted toward national capacity building: establishing an HPC competence centre (EUROCC), promoting open science governance (NI4OS-Europe), and entering cybersecurity (CyberSEAS). The trajectory shows a classic NREN evolution from pure network operations toward becoming a broader national digital research infrastructure provider.

ARNES is expanding from network plumbing into higher-value services — HPC, cybersecurity, and open science governance — positioning itself as Slovenia's one-stop shop for research digital infrastructure.

How they like to work

ARNES operates exclusively as a participant or third party, never as coordinator — consistent with NRENs that serve as national nodes in large European infrastructure consortia. Their 254 unique partners across 50 countries reflect the massive GÉANT and EOSC ecosystems rather than self-built networks. Working with ARNES means plugging into Slovenia's research infrastructure backbone; they are a reliable national-level partner, not a project initiator.

With 254 partners across 50 countries, ARNES has one of the broadest collaboration footprints possible — driven primarily by the GÉANT consortium which includes nearly every European NREN. Their reach extends beyond Europe to Latin America through the BELLA project.

What sets them apart

As Slovenia's sole NREN, ARNES is the mandatory gateway to Slovenian academic network infrastructure — there is no alternative partner for this function. Their recent expansion into HPC (EUROCC, with the largest grant at EUR 1M) makes them the national point of contact for researchers and companies needing supercomputing access. For any consortium needing a reliable Slovenian infrastructure partner with deep European connectivity, ARNES is the default and often only choice.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EUROCC
  Largest single grant (EUR 1M) — established Slovenia's national HPC competence centre, marking ARNES's expansion beyond networking into computing services.
• GN4-3
  Part of GÉANT's flagship multi-hundred-million-euro infrastructure program connecting 40+ countries, the backbone of European research networking.
• CyberSEAS
  Signals a strategic move into cybersecurity for energy systems — a new domain that combines their network expertise with critical infrastructure protection.