NATO PROMOTING INTERNET FOR SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION IN EASTERN
EUROPE

By BRENDAN McNALLY


PRAGUE, The Czech Republic

     More than forty computer network managers from former
Warsaw Pact countries are in Prague this month for Internet
training courtesy of NATO and some other new friends. Working
together with the International Science Foundation, NATO's
Scientific Affairs Division is sponsoring a number of
training workshops taking place in conjunction with the
INET`94/JENC5 conference currently being held in Prague.

     "With the Cold War over, NATO decided it was time to
reorient their activities to reflect new priorities," says
Dr. Jean-Paul Nadreau, director for computer networking for
NATO's Scientific Affairs Division. A civilian organization,
the scientific division is a little-known "third leg"
operating beside the more visible military and political
branches of the Western alliance.

     With new priorities including disarmament technology,
the environment, along with such other science and technology
issues as management research and protection of intellectual
property, Nadreau says the Scientific Division now allocates
a third of its budget "Eastward to support outreach
activities with the "Cooperative Partners," which he says
former Warsaw Pact member countries are now called.

     "We decided the best way to help their scientists was by
awarding `linkage grants' relating to research in these
areas," Nadreau. NATO also added a new area: computer
networking because of the important role computers play in
these areas.

     Last year the first conference was held in Budapest whch
brought together network managers and ministerial level
policy makers from Central and East European countries.  "It
was the first time they all had the opportunity to meet,"
says Nadreau. Their objective: to exchange ideas and find the
best networking strategies.  Among those present was Czech
deputy minister of Education Emanuel Ondracek. According to
Nadreau Ondracek was so enthused by what he encountered at
the conference that he pledged to extend the CSNET, a
fiberoptic computer network based at Masaryk University in
Brno which links eductional and scientific institutions
throughout the Czech Republic.

     "Ondracek used the INET conference to announce that he
had fulfilled his pledge," says Nadreau. "To me it is the
best proof of the synergy which the conference created."

     Nadrea says another conference will be held in Moscow
this Septemmber with the same objectives.

"We are ready to do things on a local basis," says Nadreau.
"When we identify a specific local need somewhere, we do it.

     One such program to provide specific infrasturcture help
regards ecosystem monitoring of the Black Sea. "We helped
provide funding for a wide area network electronically
linking the marine hydrographic institutes of Romania,
Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, says Nadreau. Georgia
is still not a member, Nadreau says, but he hopes that
republic will soon also join.

     The NATO scientific directorate works closely with other
funding bodies to  make sure there is no duplication of
effort or wasting of funds because, as Nadreau explains "we
actually have very little money, but we are in a position to
gather people together to get the best out of what we have to
offer. And I think we've been fairly successful."

--- Courtesy of network MCI