By Kelly McCollum, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Two efforts unveiled Monday by the National Science Foundation are connecting high-speed computer networks in Asia and Russia to the foundation's research network, known as the very-high-performance backbone network service, or vBNS.

The links will allow scholars at colleges and universities around the world to collaborate on research projects and to share resources -- such as electron microscopes and supercomputers -- from afar.

Indiana University and the University of Tennessee, which each received five-year NSF grants for the projects this year, have joined with telecommunication companies and research institutions in other countries to create and maintain the new high-speed connections. Representatives of the institutions and companies described the connections at a "virtual ribbon cutting" here Monday.

Indiana University, which received a $10 million grant, has formed a consortium called TransPAC to maintain a link to the Asian Pacific Advanced Network. That network, called APAN, is based in Japan and links research institutions in South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines. The University of Tennessee has used its $4 million grant to create a consortium known as MirNET, which will maintain a link to high-speed networks in Russia.

Work on the connections is already well under way. According to William F. Decker, program director for advanced-network infrastructure at the foundation, the connection with APAN is already operational, and the Russian tie should be on line within 60 days. The actual physical links -- fiber-optic cables that run beneath the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans -- are already in place and also provide capacity for a variety of other uses and organizations.

In addition to the Russian and Asian networks, similar networks in Canada and Singapore are already connected to the vBNS. According to Steven N. Goldstein, director of the foundation's international-network division, connections to networks in Finland, France, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden are nearing completion. Network administrators in Brazil and Chile have also expressed interest in connecting, he said.

Last week, the foundation announced a round of $350,000 grants that will allow 36 more colleges and universities in the United States to connect to the vBNS. Fifty-six institutions are now linked, and the foundation plans to connect about 150 in total.