Technology exchange
Call for Proposals

We're Counting on Your Input

The 2025 Internet2 Technology Exchange brings together the R&E community’s technical audiences and works to expand cross-topic discussions. We provide ample time for each group to deep-dive on issues within their community as well as encouraging cross-pollination of ideas.

Proposal submissions are still open for Posters and Working Meetings with an extended deadline of Oct. 17.

Advanced Networking

We are interested in hearing your stories about multiple advanced networking topics, including implementing software-enabled infrastructure, automation and orchestration, connecting to the cloud, using shared telemetry, operations, security, creating a NetDevOps team, using AI, supporting quantum computing at institutions, and more. Tell your story about these and other timely topics at TechEX25.

Knowledge Sharing: Accepted proposals should include links to resources used or developed as part of your story. These may include GitHub repositories, code snippets, or other materials the community might use to jump-start their journey.

In addition to the usual mix of presentations, panel discussions, and lightning talks, the 2025 program will include plenty of time for hallway conversations.

In an effort to support conversations among various technical audiences – many of whom are working on different facets of a shared challenge – we strongly encourage topics that bring multiple audiences together (e.g., AI, use of telemetry).

Other topic areas to consider include (but are not limited to):

• Leveraging AI tools to automate workflows, enhance code quality, optimize network configurations, and accelerate development cycles through practical implementation stories and measurable outcomes
• Moving to a software-enabled infrastructure with the use of automation, orchestration, and telemetry
• Describing architecture or infrastructure shifts to better support your campus
• Use of infrastructure and services to support cloud, research, teaching, and learning
• Improving Routing Integrity via the use of authenticated IRRs and the creation of RPKI-ROAs, as well as using routing intentions data available via the router reports to ensure data makes use of the advanced network infrastructure
• Global collaborations to enable science, technology, and learning
• Plans to leverage broadband grants in your region, infrastructure upgrades, implementation of eduroam, and collaboration with minority-serving institutions
• Implementing identity management to support role-based authentication in software-enabled infrastructure
• Sharing plans for your network experiments at SC25

Cloud Technology

Hyper-scale computing, or "cloud technology," has evolved from an emerging option to a foundational component of modern IT infrastructure, offering near-limitless, scalable, disposable computing power on demand with ubiquitous access.

Its established applications span enterprise operations (from disaster recovery to elastic computing), research computing (from high-performance clusters to specialized AI/ML workflows), data management (from analytics pipelines to multi-modal databases), and increasingly sophisticated Generative AI implementations that are reshaping institutional operations.

Having matured beyond its early adoption phase across government, the private sector, and higher education, the focus has shifted from "if" to "how best" to leverage cloud technologies. The community has developed sophisticated approaches to previously challenging questions about cost optimization, workload-appropriate platforms, enhanced security postures, multi-cloud architectures, and maintaining institutional sovereignty while maximizing cloud benefits. While challenges remain, a vibrant community of practitioners has established patterns and practices that enable institutions to confidently incorporate cloud technologies into their strategic planning.

The Cloud track invites the community to share its hard work, its painful lessons, and its game-changing successes on the path to making cloud technology an essential part of any institution’s IT toolkit.

Some major topic areas of interest, and sample topics, for this track include:

• Cloud Allies: integrating development, identity, networking, operations, and security teams for efficiency, collaboration, and cloud governance
• Cloud-native application architectures and development practices that ensure portability across deployment environments
• Research Computing as a Service: architecting scalable, reproducible research environments in the cloud
• Generative AI: building institution-wide services that balance innovation, security, and responsible use, or even innovative uses of GenAI in cloud operations
• FinOps maturity: advancing from cost management to business value optimization in cloud investments
• Architectures for secure cloud operations in regulated environments (CMMC, GovCloud, etc.)

Identity & Access Management

Higher education and research (R&E) institutions are all riding the wave of change in Identity and Access Management (IAM) —driven by evolving technologies, security threats, regulatory pressures, and workforce constraints. How is your institution adapting? What lessons have you learned? What innovations are shaping the next generation of identity management?

The TechEx IAM Track, also known as CAMP Week, invites you to share your expertise, challenges, and solutions! Your voice and experiences have never been more valuable to the IAM community. We seek proposals from IAM practitioners, leaders, security professionals, enterprise architects, software engineers, project managers, developers, and business analysts and anyone involved in shaping identity and access management. Share your insights in thought-provoking sessions that advance the field.

CAMP Week at TechEx attracts professionals from around the world with experience in identity architecture, federated trust, authentication and authorization, identity governance, operational principles and more. Submit a proposal on your own or collaborate with peers to present case studies, demonstrations, technical deep dives, lessons learned, innovative approaches, or best practices. Sessions in the IAM Track often drive in-depth discussions at Advance CAMP, which takes place at the end of the week.

THEMES & TOPIC AREAS FOR THIS TRACK INCLUDE (but not limited to):

• AI-Powered Identity Management - How is your institution exploring or implementing artificial intelligence within your IAM strategy? What approaches, challenges, opportunities, and other considerations are you exploring to incorporate AI technologies into identity management processes? This could include any aspect where AI and IAM intersect at your institution. Note: We are joining forces with other conference tracks on this topic!
• IAM for Small but Mighty Teams - Many institutions face the reality of implementing robust IAM programs with limited resources. Share creative strategies, automation techniques, and practical solutions for doing more with less. This could include future-proofing IAM investments, outsourcing considerations, cross-functional team structures, or scaling IAM without scaling headcount. We welcome perspectives from institutions of all sizes on how you're addressing these challenges and opportunities.
• Next-Generation Federation - What does the future of federation look like as IAM expands beyond SAML? Share your experiences with OpenID Connect, OAuth, decentralized identity, or emerging trust models. How are institutions and service providers evolving federation frameworks, governance, and interoperability for the next generation of identity management?
• IAM as the Security Backbone - Identity is at the core of cybersecurity, and its role continues to expand. How is your institution integrating IAM into security strategies to mitigate evolving threats? Offer your perspectives and experiences - from phishing-resistant MFA, identity proofing, threat detection, zero-trust architecture, risk-based access, to governance frameworks. What strategies balance usability with security? How does your IAM strategy support your overall security posture?
• Identity in a Passwordless and Automated World - How is your institution navigating the shift to passwordless authentication and managing non-human identities? Share your strategies for implementing FIDO2, passkeys, identity proofing, and governance of service accounts, bots, and machine identities. What lessons have you learned about reducing friction, improving security, and adapting to automation-driven IAM models?

Scaling IAM for Global Research and Education Collaboration - As R&E institutions navigate political shifts, institutional consolidations, and evolving trust frameworks, seamless and secure collaboration has never been more critical. How is your institution leveraging IAM to support multi-institutional collaborations, consortium-based access, and global research initiatives? What are the emerging challenges and solutions in trust, interoperability, and governance across international identity federations? Share your experiences in strengthening identity frameworks, access policies, and federated trust models to support the next generation of global academic collaboration.

Information Security

We are seeking proposals for Information Security sessions broadly related to the Research & Education community. In the past, “Lessons Learned” presentations about how organizations have improved their security posture have historically been very successful as have presentations on somewhat unusual topics.

The Information Security track has a strong history of network security sessions, but covers all security topics, including (but not limited to):

• Common security issues in research and education environments
  • Measuring success with security metrics and benchmark
  • Threat hunting techniques and remediation strategies
  • Assessing the security posture of cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
  • Dealing with actual or looming ransomware threats
  • Governance, Risk and Compliance considerations: PII, ePHI, GDPR, etc.
  • Supply Chain Risk Management
• Analyzing security incidents recently experienced by the community – particularly “lessons learned"
• Implementing Zero Trust Architecture and perimeter-less security
• Promoting security leadership and strengthening the security posture of key global Internet infrastructure
  • Advocating for MANRS adoption and working to ensure routing integrity
  • Experiences with threat modeling of infrastructure
• Addressing the research community’s unique network security needs:
  • Understanding and addressing the challenges of network security at 100Gbps and higher speeds
  • Identifying and/or developing new and promising network security tools, particularly tools for collaboratively sharing data about security incidents at scale
  • Balancing “enterprise-like” security on open networks
• Secure Software Development & DevSecOps Practices
• Leveraging Trust & Identity tools in the context of Research & Education infrastructure
• International security collaboration
• Implementing security controls in SaaS services like GWE, O365, Salesforce, and others
• Secure research enclaves where campuses provide computing environments for researchers that meet their security requirements and provide access to computing to support research

Call for Tutorials

To restore the valuable community expertise shared via tutorials of past events, submissions for half- and full-day tutorials will be considered by the Program Committee. Specifically, the committee is looking for representative offerings in these topic areas:

• Advanced Networking
• Cloud Technology
• Information Security
• Identity & Access Management

The proposals should be complete as to proposed length (full- or half-day) and include a draft agenda, as well as supporting materials; evidence that this material has been successfully offered elsewhere will enhance the submission value. Number of instructors and (if relevant) maximum number of participants should be included within the proposal materials. All proposals will be reviewed by community experts and ranked against other submissions, both within the topic and across all topic areas. Those deemed of “high technical value/interest” will be alerted by mid-June. All tutorial sessions will be offered on Monday, December 8, with full-day tutorials commencing after 8:00 am and half-day tutorials commencing after 1:00 pm. Due to the large number of participants at these events, lunch is included as part of the registration fee.

NOTE: Tutorials, for the purposes of this “Call for Proposals,” are instructional in nature – registrants can expect to learn from instructors. Workshops, on the other hand, are collaborative in nature; registrants expect to provide/share knowledge in an attempt by a group to further overall development of a topic area. Internet2 allows staff to sponsor workshops and co-located events on behalf of community members; those staff agree to be responsible for curating this content and providing funds to cover any expenses related to them.

Call for Posters

To ensure broad community representation on the program, submissions for Poster will be considered by the Program Committee. Specifically, the committee is looking for representative offerings in these topic areas:

• Advanced Networking
• Cloud Technology
• Information Security
• Identity & Access Management

The proposals should be complete as to scope of content being presented; access to a 2’x3’ poster board/easel is provided. These can be staffed at any time convenient for the submitter throughout the event but a Poster Reception on Tuesday evening is the required time for submitters to be available to discuss their content with interested attendees. This element, introduced in 2024 when proposals increased over 35% from previous years and the percentage of rejections drastically increased, was extremely well received and attended. Because many submitters may only wish for an avenue to present their content as part of the overall technical program, we elected to open a call for these Poster proposals as part of the overall event announcement. Submissions will continue to be allowed, reviewed, and selected through early September.

Call for Working Meetings

The Technology Exchange, convening over 800 technical experts in the R&E community each year, is a wonderful location to propose a variety of working meetings, including: Special Interest Groups (SIGs), Birds of a Feather (BoFs), Working Groups, and other types of small group gatherings. While preference is given to sponsored groups in the below topic areas, we endeavor to find space for all proposed gatherings:

• Advanced Networking
• Cloud Technology
• Information Security
• Identity & Access Management

The scheduling options for these meetings include breakfasts, lunches, and select evenings.

Submission Tips for Proposals

Selections for each track/topic area is managed by a group of subject matter experts in that topic. Each team creates the text for the Call based on their understanding of what topics the community is most interested in. Please read the text thoroughly and take note of the suggestions they offer, particularly “of special interest” listings.

To optimize your score, we recommend:

1. Keep your “Title:” clear, short (40 char max on agenda), and to the point.
2. Use “Abstract:” field to be as descriptive as possible, including – if possible – a list of points/issues you are raising. Feel free to attach supporting or background documentation but it is not often necessary. The field is character-unlimited.
3. List any speakers you plan to invite to co-present, with their organization names and emails.
4. Be sure to have at least (1) presenter from either a .edu or .gov address – committees rarely support submissions from for-profit organizations without strong R&E connections and support.
5. Choose your “Primary Track:” carefully – if you have a talk with some cross-audience appeal (say Advanced Networking and Information Security), consider adding a Secondary Track option or submitting as a CROSS-TOPIC proposal, with either of the tracks as “Secondary Track”. This ensures both review teams consider the submission instead of the Primary group.

NOTE: Once you submit a proposal, you will receive a system-generated receipt including a copy of your submission – if you do not receive this email within a few hours, it is likely that your submission did not go through and we recommend you contact meetings@internet2.edu to help you and ensure it has been received.

Review process:

Reviews begin after the CFP closes and take 3-5 weeks. Reviews are ‘blind’ until all proposals have been assessed by the track/topic team. At this point, scores and comments can be seen by all and a series of discussions ensues about which proposals will best meet the community interests. Many times, submissions are "merged” – you are asked to work with another submitter who proposed on that same topic to create a broader view of the topic.

Depending on the submissions and topics for the year, the full committee (all members of track teams) can meet to discuss the submissions, further delaying the selection and scheduling process. You can expect to hear about your submission (whether accepted or not) before the first of June. If accepted, you are asked to CONFIRM your intent to present in-person; after you confirm, you are told the proposed scheduling for your talk and asked about presentation support (AV needs, special requests, etc.) and your talk is posted to the online agenda.

Good luck!

Who Participates in the Internet2 Technology Exchange?

Both presenters and attendees represent the Internet2 community. Participants are diverse in terms of gender, age, experience, and areas of technical expertise; they represent a variety of institutions—higher education institutions, government laboratories and agencies, industry partners, and more. Consequently, the conference offers a diverse and content-rich program to appeal across all technical areas of higher education IT.

The Internet2 Technology Exchange is part of the greater Internet2 strategy to reach members of our community – especially those technical experts engaged in research and implementation surrounding advanced networking, information security, trust and identity issues, as well as those focused on how various technical communities and projects intersect (i.e., Internet of Things, etc.). Through a combination of presentations, working meetings, coordinated discussions, tutorials, and workshops, the Technology Exchange brings affordable professional development to more colleagues and provides opportunities to network with technical professionals, analysts and engineers, IT staff, C-level executives, and others from across the Internet2 community:

• Internet2 Technology Exchange participants are pioneers, technologists, campus architects, scientists, security professionals, network operators and students in the fields of R&E networking, information security, federated trust and identity access management, virtualization, cloud technology, and technical research support.
• Many Technology Exchange participants are "first-timers" (usually over 25%).
• While the Technology Exchange is held in a different region of the U.S. each year, it also attracts participants from other countries, usually representing about 13% of total attendance, including technology leaders and visionaries from more than 85 countries.

Conference evaluations indicate that attendees seek practical takeaways (especially lessons learned and detailed case studies), information on trending issues and threats, the ability to shape community best practices and develop new initiatives, and, of course, professional networking opportunities. They value presenters who provide advance materials and engage in dialog as part of their session, continuing the conversation throughout the event.