The Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES) is a public institute that provides network services to research, educational and cultural organizations, and enables them to establish connections and cooperation with each other and with related organizations abroad. ARNES builds, maintains and manages infrastructure linking universities, institutes, research laboratories, museums, schools, databases and digital libraries. It offers users the same services as national academic networks in other countries; it cooperates with these networks in European Commission projects to test, develop and introduce new Internet protocols and services. It also provides services that are not offered by commercial organizations but which are essential to the operation of the Internet in Slovenia.