Membership

Membership to the Great Plains Network (GPN) provides both tangible and intangible benefits.

Tangibly, GPN is a cost effective, high-fidelity, high-capacity, shared network access point, connecting universities and state networks throughout the midwest and great plains.

Intangibly, GPN is a powerful and dedicated research advocate, championing the needs of its members and working diligently to amplify and fortify the advanced cyberinfrastructure of the region.

GPN Members

Many GPN members are internationally renowned for excellence in education and research via advanced cyberinfrastructure — GPN membership helps them to remain at the cutting edge of these advancements. Other members are developing their cyberinfrastructure capacity — GPN membership allows them to learn from others and form strategic alliances.

GPN also partners with state networks, high performance computing centers and other organizations, like the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), the MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS), Internet2, and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), on behalf of our members.

Full Member

Arkansas State University
Arkansas State University
Black Hills State University
Black Hills State University
Dakota State University
Dakota State University
Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Northern State University
Northern State University
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma State University
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
South Dakota State University
South Dakota State University
University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
University of Kansas
University of Kansas
University of Missouri
University of Missouri
University of Missouri, Kansas City
University of Missouri, Kansas City
University of Missouri, St. Louis
University of Missouri, St. Louis
University of Nebraska
University of Nebraska
University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
University of South Dakota
University of South Dakota
University of Tulsa
University of Tulsa
Wichita State University
Wichita State University

Affiliate Member, University

Iowa State University
Iowa State University
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wisconsin-Madison
WiscNet
WiscNet

Affiliate Member, Corporate

Adva Optical Networking
Adva Optical Networking
Ciena
Ciena

Membership Benefits

What we do for our members?

GPN is a recognized national leader in advanced networking services. GPN manages and operates a High Performance Research and Education Network that

  • Offers more bandwidth for less cost
  • Takes advantage of economies of scale
  • Provides peering and caching services (Google, Netflix, Akamai) that reduce traffic on members’ commodity networks
  • Connects members to cloud services
  • Moves quickly on behalf of members to take advantage of new opportunities while minimizing risk
  • Collectively bargains for better pricing
  • GPN members have a shared history, common values and mutual trust.
  • GPN is recognized as a national model of collaboration
  • Provides valuable opportunities for individuals (even at the same university) to make connections.
  • Connects researchers on campuses to regional and national initiatives
  • Serves as a platform for building collaborations and communities of interest
  • Engages members on emerging topics and provides members with peer groups
  • Facilitates engagement of new technical staff and faculty with others across the region
  • Adds value to existing and planned collaborations
  • Provides researchers a forum maximizing impact of their research
  • Assists researchers to identify collaborators
  • Brings national experts to the region

Opportunities for Collaboration

GPN staff actively seek out and help members pool their skills and knowledge across disciplines in a host of technical and research areas. Often, these efforts start as less formal communities of interest and develop into projects of their own. Many of these efforts have attained national and international recognition. Others have lead to the development of more robust campus infrastructure. Recent collaborations include:

  • Network Infrastructure
  • Data Lifecycle Management
  • Shared Research Storage
  • File Sharing Service
  • Bioinformatics
  • Federated Identity Management
  • Grid Computing
  • Network Research
  • K20 Interactive Distance Learning

Rate & Fees

GPN has two general fee categories:

  1. GPN Consortium Fees
  2. GPN Network Fees

GPN Consortium Fees support the overall management and operations of the Consortium as well as research and cyberinfrastructure initiatives, working groups, workshops, maintaining an online presence and the GPN Annual Meeting.

GPN Network Fees support a variety of network-related services to participants of the GPN Network Program. These services are categorized as either a Shared Service or a Fee-For-Service and the following guidelines are used for cost allocation and setting fees for network services.

Both consortium and network fees are outlined in the following document: GPN Service and Fee Schedule.

How to Join

GPN is organized under the rules set forth in the GPN Consortium Agreement. There are two categories of GPN membership available: regular membership and affiliate membership.

Please complete an agreement and mail to:

Bill Mitchell, Executive Director
Phone: (573) 268-7214
bill@greatplains.net

Gregory E. Monaco, Ph.D., Director for Research and Cyberinfrastructure Initiatives
Phone: (785) 554-9657
greg@greatplains.net