Reshuffling of funding councils jeopardizes plans for UK academic computer network

Abstract

The forthcoming realignment of Britain's higher education funding councils into four regional bodies has thrown a wrench into the works for plans to develop Super JANET, a successor to the existing British academic computer network. Super JANET is a high band-width optical fibre network capable of sending information at a rate of gigabits a second-a thousand times faster than JANET. Whereas JANET is capable of carrying data, text files and electronic mail, Super JANET will allow distributed computing, transfer of still and moving images, interactive use of computers and immediate visual representation of data and the remote use of computers with differing architectures for single tasks. As such, Super JANET is expected to improve access to computing facilities, reducing delays and reversing the trend of some researchers being forced to work overseas to obtain access to more powerful US networks. The Universities Funding Council (UFC) has promised to spend £20 million (US$35 million) to develop Super JANET between 1993 and 1996. But from April next year, responsibility for funding higher education moves from it and the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (PCFC) to four regional funding councils, covering England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The dissolution of the UFC means that plans for Super JANET must be renegotiated with the new funding bodies. Also at stake is the future management structure ofBritish academic networks. There