member institutions to renumber their networks to be identified globally as research and education institutions. The availability of national and international fiber cable is a catalyst for the implementation of the physical network. Building on the work done by the Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO) of establishing a VSATs based network, aims to further the efforts by providing fast fiber connectivity to be linked to neighbouring countries, to the rest of Africa and to the EU academic network (GEANT). MAREN, registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee in late 2009, has been involved in such as activities as the development of a fiber campus for the University of Malawi sites: College of Medicine and related medical research complexes, Blantyre Campus of Kamuzu College of Nursing and the Malawi Polytechnic including reviewing alternative routes by ESCOM, ensuring negotiated regulatory compliance with MACRA and working with support agencies EU and UbuntuNet Alliance for research and education. In order to implement the regional high capacity data network for research and education in Eastern and Southern Africa, the EU funded AfricaConnect Project was launched in May and is being implemented by UbuntuNet Alliance for the benefit of its members throughout the region. When in place, this network will facilitate the participation of Malawi educators and researchers in regional and global collaborative teams and bring the learning and research experience much nearer with the institutions in the West. Among the outcomes will be E-Medicine, High definition video conferencing, Enhanced e-learning and Participation in global virtual research communities. 3.17 National Digital Repository (NDR) In 2009, the National Library Service (NLS) began collaborating with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS, UK) on the Malawi Development Exchange (MDE), a project to facilitate the widening of access to development information in Malawi, by collecting and disseminating Malawian research. MDE, based at the NLS, has 36