The RIPE Chair Team Reports - March 2026

Preparations for RIPE 92 are well under way, so we'd like to begin this month's update with important information about the upcoming event. First of all, it's worth noting that the call for proposals is now closed and the Programme Committee is reviewing the submissions for the plenary. You can still submit talks for Working Group sessions.

Travel requirements for Edinburgh

Please check if you need a visa before entering the UK. Also visitors from the EU will need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to enter the United Kingdom (including Scotland). Please find more information on visa requirements on the RIPE 92 website.

Fellowships and the RIPE research exchange

For RIPE 92, we received a good number of high-quality applications for the RIPE Academic Cooperation Initiative (RACI). A team of community volunteers and RIPE NCC staff had the difficult task of choosing a small number of fellows. The main goal for this initiative is to bring researchers and operators together. This has worked well over the years and we saw useful research projects that produce relevant results for the network community. In order to facilitate this even more, we introduced poster sessions at the last RIPE meeting that allow more in-depth conversations between RACI fellows and other RIPE participants. At RIPE 92, we will pilot another activity - the RIPE Research Exchange - to facilitate the exchange of ideas between operators and researchers on useful research topics.

In the meantime, the new RIPE Fellowship programme entered the next stage: the volunteer coaches are now in contact with their fellows and are working with them to prepare for the RIPE Meeting.

If you are new to RIPE Meetings, but you are not a fellow, there are a number of things you can do to prepare, including requesting a mentor for the meeting. More information can be found on the RIPE 92 newcomers page.

Public speaking

Following the feedback we received from the Programme Committee and the wider community, we worked with the RIPE NCC on a training course on public speaking. This modular programme focuses on building a narrative and bringing a message across. The online modules are now available and open to anybody (you need log in with your RIPE NCC Access account). As a next step, the RIPE NCC training team will provide a webinar prior to RIPE 92 where you can test your presentation.

Childcare

As discussed during RIPE 91 community plenary, the uptake of the childcare services provided during RIPE Meetings has decreased over the last years while the costs have gone up. The RIPE NCC issued a survey to get a better idea of the need for childcare. Unfortunately the results did not give a clear direction. So, for RIPE 92, we will not provide childcare. Instead we will look at alternatives that can support RIPE participants with children.

RIPE Meeting registration fees

As you might have noticed, the costs of events are increasing steadily. RIPE Meetings are financed by registration fees, sponsors and the RIPE NCC. We are in a situation where the costs of meetings borne by the RIPE NCC has been steadily increasing and is now quite large. Therefore, we are currently evaluating the overall costs and revenue. This is likely to lead to an increase in registration fees. The last time the registration fee for RIPE Meetings was increased was in 2023. Currently we are thinking of small increments over the next years starting in 2027 rather than one big jump. We will discuss this topic further during the RIPE 92 meeting.

Industry Events

IGF-D: I was invited to speak at an event in Berlin organised by the Internet Governance Forum Germany (IGF-D). The topic was Digital Sovereignty. It was interesting to listen to a researcher who analysed the term sovereignty and pointed out the many different interpretations of the term. I also enjoyed the speech by a representative from civil society who called for more de-centralisation instead of "monoculture" which reminded me of Maria Farrell's talk at RIPE 90 on rewilding the Internet.

The German IGF community also organises monthly online sessions (in German). Last time the topic was Names, Numbers, Protocols. Constanze Bürger, one of our RIPE-elected members of the NRO Numbers Council gave an update of the discussions around the new draft RIR Governance document. The NRO NC is currently meeting at the ICANN 85 meeting to discuss the next steps.

On 25 February, Anna Wilson attended in a webinar called “Approaching the Finish Line: Update on the ICP-2 Review” that was organised by the NRO NC.

Roundtable: On 3 March, I attended the RIPE NCC Roundtable meeting in Brussels and participated in an interesting panel that discussed the roles and responsibilities of various groups including the network operators communities in the development and deployment of Internet standards.

Upcoming events

ICANN Dialogues: On 25 March, I will participate in a panel on Internet Outages where I will greatly benefit from the measurements and publications by RIPE NCC staff.

RIPE NCC Board Meeting: On 26 and 27 March I will attend the RIPE NCC board meeting and will present on recent developments in the RIPE community.

SEE 14: In April, I will attend the South East Europe Meeting SEE 14 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Finally, I wish our colleagues and community members in areas that are currently suffering from violence and war lots of strength.