SERENE: South-South Exchange of Research & Education Network Experience

SERENE (South-South Exchange of Research & Education Network Experience) is a program of multi-country exchanges between South Asian and other countries through a blend of video-conferences, on-line discussions and face-to-face interactions.

The SERENE program was specifically aimed at helping the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal to develop a policy and strategy for establishing their own respective Research and Education Network. The exchanges drew on the experiences of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as of individual experts worldwide.

SERENE is an action-learning program of virtual dialogues, visits, and a workshop, for ministry and university management staff and network managers in the target countries. The objective of the program is to assist the participants in producing guidelines to country policy plans for building national research and education networks (NRENs) in their own countries and to encourage cooperation and collaboration among South Asian NRENs.

The key audiences of the SERENE program were: staff in Ministries of Education, Health, Science and Technology, and Communications, and Higher Education Authorities, Universities, and Telecom Operators.