BackboneNHGruppen

BackboneNHGruppen is a nonprofit cooperative that coordinates research, standardization, and deployment activities related to backbone information networks and critical infrastructure in Northern Europe. It brings together universities, industry partners, and public-sector organizations to advance scalable, resilient network architectures and associated technologies. The group emphasizes open standards, interoperability, and collaborative innovation, with a focus on practical deployments that can be adopted by member institutions.

Governance is provided by a member-driven board of directors, a rotating coordinating lead, and several working committees focused on research, standards, deployment, and education. Membership is open to academic institutions, network operators, technology vendors, and public authorities that commit to the group's charter and joint programs. Funding combines member dues, competitive grants, and project-based collaborations with industry partners and public agencies.

Core activities include coordinating research projects, contributing to open-source software and reference designs, organizing workshops and training, and managing pilot deployments to validate concepts in real-world environments. Notable areas of work include backbone resilience and fault tolerance, scalable routing and traffic engineering, security for large-scale networks, and integration with data centers, edge computing, and digital health information systems.

The organization publishes technical reports, guidelines, and best practices, and participates in regional and international standards discussions to help align specifications across vendors and operators. BackboneNHGruppen seeks to improve the efficiency, reliability, and security of regional backbone networks while fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders.