NRENs are National Research and Education Networks.  An NREN is responsible, on a national basis, for the provision of data communications networks and services to the research and education community of its country.  The NREN network typically connects other networks at regional or metropolitan level.

For some, NREN usually refers to the organization (the NREN organization) that designs, builds or leases, operates, maintains, supports and manages a physical telecommunications network for the benefit of the education and research community. The physical telecommunications network (the NREN physical network) connects education and research institutions directly to each other, to other NRENs and to the "commercial" or "commodity" Internet.  

The NREN physical network is, in reality, usually a "private network" or "closed network" dedicated to the education and research community. The connection to the commercial Internet is often achieved either through peering arrangements with commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at national Internet Exchange Points (IXP) or through direct connection to a large commercial Internet provider outside the NREN's country.

Another view is that NRENs are primarily human networks and their accompanying organizational structures for producing and sharing knowledge and for promoting a continuous research agenda. The physical telecommunications networks and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are enabling tools for the production, distribution, sharing, management and utilization of knowledge. The human networks are the users and beneficiaries of the physical network.