The establishment of the National Network for Research and Education of Kosovo / Kosovo Research and Education Network (KREN) has started since 2019, through the project for the Kosovo Digital Economy (KODE), supported by the International Development Association (IDA) and implemented within the Ministry of Economy (ME).

All activities, investments, hardware, and software communication infrastructure of KREN are dedicated to the needs of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), including public and private ones. In the future, with the approval of the Government of Kosovo, secondary and primary schools may also be included in the KREN network.

The need for KREN stems from the fact that universities and colleges in Kosovo have been connected through the commercial network (with poor speed and security in terms of quality for research) and have paid for broadband services that do not meet the needs of theirs. Of all the countries in the region, only Kosovo has not had a hardware infrastructure, systematized, and dedicated technical support for HEIs and a network connecting HEIs. As a consequence, HEIs have not had the necessary prerequisites to engage in knowledge exchange or inter-institutional research collaboration or with European partners and have had limitations for participation in the GÉANT association.