Press Release
IMDEA Networks Institute (Madrid, Spain) and NEC Laboratories Europe (Heidelberg, Germany) announce the launch of a Joint Research Unit (JRU) in 5G technologies. The JRU will foster multidisciplinary joint team work in 5G research and development projects.
Located at IMDEA Networks’ headquarters in Madrid, the private-public alliance “NEC – IMDEA Networks Joint Research Unit in 5G technologies” establishes an operational framework for close collaboration amongst a highly specialized team in a variety of scientific activities. The JRU team will share a wealth of know-how and capabilities to jointly deliver 5G solutions, architectures, technologies and standards.
Work led by experienced scientists Roberto González Sánchez and Andrés García Saavedra, both senior researchers from NEC Laboratories Europe, together with Arturo Azcorra, Joerg Widmer and Albert Banchs, from IMDEA Networks, will focus on key 5G and beyond enablers such as the usage of Artificial Intelligence technologies to improve the performance and usability of the 5G networks or the generation and study of new Internet services.
The range of collaborative activities is broad as well as flexible. It includes joint participation in R&D programs and projects, selection and training of personnel, development of platforms, applications, services and software tools, exploration and technological evaluation, technology transfer activities and enhancement of R&D through internal and external programs, and research dissemination activities.
Both entities have been strongly involved from the start in the European effort to create 5G, the next (and fifth) generation of mobile networks. In effect, they are part of the 5G Infrastructure Association since 2014, a body whose membership has attracted 26 key stakeholders from industry, 18 from academia, and 8 from independent organizations and SMEs as well as 12 partners and a further 2 associate members. This partnership operates with an EU budget of € 700 million devoted to research, development and innovation aimed to create an operational European 5G communications infrastructure by the year 2020. In the context of the 5G-PPP, both NEC and IMDEA Networks are actively involved in several 5G EU projects funded by the Horizon 2020 program, such as 5G-Transformer (NEC) and 5G-EVE (IMDEA Networks).
