Paper Number 46 1 Overview of

Conference ABSTRACT: Arising from the need for state-of-the-art facilities to conduct leading edge scientific research, and balancing the logistics of maintaining and operating such facilities, there is a global trend towards establishing networks of communal experimental and computational infrastructure. The New Zealand Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NZNEES) represents such a network for earthquake engineering research in New Zealand. It is a network that takes advantage of the latest digital information technologies to overcome the obstacle of distance. It acts as a vehicle to interface with other similar networks overseas and permits New Zealand researchers to participate equally in the new global forum, collaborate with likeminded leading experts worldwide and access state-of-the-art resources and the global research funding pool. The NZNEES network is modelled on the U.S. NEES network and has the vision to further the human understanding of earthquakes through integrated experimentation, computation and simulation