HEAnet - Ireland's National Education & Research Network, provides high-speed Internet access to academic institutions in Ireland direct to European and USA networks. The network is funded by the Higher Education Authority and is a WAN-based network.
In 1984 the network started out supported by the then two National Institutes for Higher Education (now Dublin City University and University of Limerick), National University of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin. Today 35 organisations support its work, including the Institute of Technology system as well as other colleges and organisations in Ireland.
HEAnet helped set up INEX, the Internet Neutral EXchange, to allow ISP systems to interchange traffic within Ireland. HEAnet is connected to JANET in the UK via a 1 Gbit/s link and GEANT in Europe via a 2.5 Gbit/s link. They also have several links to research networks in North America. Additionally there are several non-research links to the USA, Europe and South-East Asia.