1. Research Productivity for Kenyan Researchers and Institutions
Dr Moses M Thiga
Research Associate & Lecturer Kabarak University
Mr Ronald Osure
Applications Developer
B.Sc. M.Sc. (Egerton) M.Sc. (Liverpool) PhD (Kabarak)
B.Sc. Computer Science – Egerton University 1

2. Presentation Outline Introduction to KENET
Kenya’s Research Productivity
Research Infrastructures at KENET
Transforming education through ICT

3. Who are we?
Kenya Education Network (KENET) is the National Research and Education Network (NREN) of Kenya
Vision: To be the leading NREN in Africa
Mission: Transform education and research through broadband Internet Connectivity
Our offices? We are hosted by UoN, USIU and CUEA
Transforming education through ICT

4. Who governs KENET?
Board of Trustees - 11 Trustees, 7 of them Vice Chancellors
One Trustee is CEO of a member research institute
PS, State Department for University Education
Director General, Communications Authority (ICT regulator)
One private sector CEO
Executive Director is Ex-Officio
Transforming education through ICT

5. Our main role in Research and Education
We are a National Research and Education Network (NREN) and our primary role is to create an environment for improved education and research productivity in our member institutions.
How we do this
Providing access affordable broadband.
Improving campus infrastructure.
Collecting and disseminating e-readiness data.
Providing data on research productivity.
Providing educational services.
Providing research infrastructures.
Promoting collaborative research.
Transforming education through ICT

6. Researcher Discovery University Researcher Forums
Science Gateways and Grid Infrastructures Workshop in November 2016
Formation of Special Interest Groups
Webinars on selected topics
Active mailing list to keep researchers informed 6

7. Collaborative proposal writing - NRF Proposal
KENET participated in a number of Collaborative research proposals including one of its own for a HPC facility for Kenya
Make an announcement also to the audience that they can talk to us to enroll them right away!

8. Kenya Research Productivity 2011 - 2016
Transforming education through ICT

9. Kenya – Benchmarking with other African Countries
Transforming education through ICT

10. Most Collaborations in West, South and Eastern Africa
Kenya Research Collaborations
Most Collaborations in West, South and Eastern Africa
Transforming education through ICT

11. Top 10 Research Institutions
Publications
1. University of Nairobi
2,386
2. Kenya Medical Research Institute
1,661
3. International Livestock Research Institute
861
4. World Agroforestry Centre
790
5. Moi University
778
6. Kenyatta University
688
7. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
651
8. International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology Nairobi
640
9. Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories Nairobi
514
10. National Museums of Kenya
477
in their respective fields, ranging from social sciences to astronomy, genomics to nanotechnologies. 11

12. Research Infrastructures
The term ‘research infrastructures’ refers to facilities, resources and related services used by the scientific community to conduct top-level research
in their respective fields, ranging from social sciences to astronomy, genomics to nanotechnologies. 12

13. Research Infrastructures
High Performance Computing & Storage
Medicine, Genomics
Astronomy
RESEARCHERS
Examples include;
singular large-scale research installations, collections, special habitats, libraries, databases, biological archives, clean rooms, integrated arrays of small research installations, high-capacity/high speed communication networks, highly distributed capacity and capability computing facilities, data infrastructure,. 13

14. KENET Research Services
Research Infrastructures at KENET
KENET Research Services
Digital Certificates
Federated Identify
Community cloud services
Eduroam
Video conferencing
Our motivation
To bridge the gap in accessing e-infrastructures by Kenyan researchers
Open up access to global research infrastructures through identity services
To avoid duplication of efforts by member universities and to coordinate the use of these resources
To connect researchers locally & internationally to increase the overall quality of the research and innovation
Champion openness 14

15. What is a Digital Certificate?
A digital certificate is an electronic "passport" that allows a person, computer or organization to exchange information securely over the Internet using the public key infrastructure (PKI). 15

16. Grid Computing
Grid computing harnesses unused processing cycles of all computers in a network for solving problems too intensive for any stand-alone machine.
Accessible grids
EGI (European Grid Infrastructure)
SURFSara (Dutch Grid)
Worldwide LHC Computing Grid 16

17. KENET IDP: https://idp.kenet.or.ke
Identity Provider
IdP (Identity Provider), is a system that creates, maintains, and manages identity information for principals (users, services, or systems) and provides principal authentication to other service providers (applications) within a federation or distributed network.
This is different from ORCID and researcher ID
KENET IDP: 17

18. Science Gateways
A Science Gateway is a community-developed set of tools, applications, and data that are integrated via a portal
Common applications
GNU Octave -
R- statistical analysis
WEKA – machine learning
or a suite of applications, usually in a graphical user interface, that is further customized to meet the needs of a specific community. 18

19. Science Gateways http://sgw.africa-grid.org/ 19

20. Research collaboration tools
Video Conferencing -
Research collaboration tools
Nico Cloete presenting from South Africa – HoI Forum Mombasa 2015
–Vidyo Desktop System
Dedicated systems
Required components packaged into a single device
Polycom Units in 5 PoPS (Nakuru, Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu & Eldoret)
Desktop systems
Software add-on (with codecs) to normal PCs and laptops
WebRTC platforms
Available through the standard web browser
KENET Research Webinar Series 2016 – Participants from across the universities
Web RTC System 20

21. Community Cloud Services
Virtualization services
Co-location services
Disaster recovery site hosting services and Infrastructure as a Service 21

22. How to get started Interested in Talk to us at support@kenet.or.ke
High performance computing
Science gateways
Video conferencing
Virtualization
Talk to us at
Make an announcement also to the audience that they can talk to us to enroll them right away!

23. Thank You www.kenet.or.ke Dr. Moses Thiga mthiga@kenet.or.ke
Mr. Ronald Osure
Thank You
Jomo Kenyatta Memorial
Library, University of Nairobi
P. O Box , Nairobi. /