SNS JU January 2024 Newsletter

Best wishes for 2024!

Dear community, we’re delighted to send you our best wishes for the New Year. We hope it will be a year of success and achievement for all of you and for the SNS programme.

After becoming autonomous in 2023, SNS JU will reach full speed in 2024, the final year of its first phase. This initial phase focused concentrated on the evolutionary aspects of 5G, delving into the exploration of 6G, including its concepts and definitions. As a result, 35 Research and Innovation projects were developed, spanning across 9 key technological areas, with investments totaling EUR 250 million.

Looking ahead to 2024, the 3rd Horizon Europe call is scheduled to take place. The call for proposals opened on 16 January 2024, accompanied by an informative webinar on 22 January 2024.

Development of the SNS JU Programme Office

On November 2023 SNS JU presented its new Programme Office team. The Programme Office is supporting the Executive Director. Under the responsibility of the Executive Director, the Programme Office is in charge of the daily management of the Joint Undertaking and executes all its activities, from project management to financial matters and communication.

The key responsibilities of the Programme Office are:

• Execution of the EU budget through implementation of calls for proposals and consequent monitoring of a portfolio of projects including dissemination and exploitation of their results, and feedback to policies;
• Management of the R&I agenda of the Joint Undertaking in coordination with the JU members (Commission, 6G Industry Association) and other stakeholders including EU Member States, international interest groups or scientific community;
• Communication on the Joint Undertaking results and technologies related to Smart Networks and Services, including measures to increase public awareness.

The SNS JU’s governing board adoption of the updated 2nd Edition of Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) 2021-2027

On 13 November 2023, the SNS JU governing board adopted the 2^nd Edition of SRIA for 2024-2027.

The revised edition emphasizes the pursuit of 6G technological sovereignty and sustainability as primary goals for the private sector in Europe. On the public front, the key objectives include advancing open strategic autonomy, positioning Europe as the first digitally led circular, climate-neutral, and sustainable economy, and strengthening European capabilities in key parts of digital and future supply chains.

The Decision Statement is available here.

SNS JU adopts its R&I Work Programme 2024 to advance European 6G Research and pursue Global Standards

On 23rd November 2023, the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) Governing Board adopted its Work Programme 2024, including information about the 2024 Call for Proposals under Horizon Europe.

The SNS JU published its new Research and Innovation Work Programme for 2024 with EUR 129 million of public funding for collaborative projects to advance 6G systems and prepare for standardisation activities.

The SNS R&I Work Programme 2024 is the basis for the third SNS Call for Proposals.

As the global landscape continues to evolve, the SNS JU’s comprehensive R&I Work Programme underscores its commitment to fostering 6G research and innovation, promotes sustainability, addresses microelectronics for telecommunication systems and cooperates internationally to drive the future of smart networks and services with a global impact.

United Kingdom joins Horizon Europe programme

The United Kingdom became an associated country to Horizon Europe on January 1^st, 2024. Its researchers will be able to participate in this research and innovation programme on the same terms as researchers from other associated countries and will have access to Horizon Europe funding.

The final step towards this was completed – the EU-UK Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes adopted the political agreement on United Kingdom’s association to Horizon Europe and to the Copernicus component of the Space Programme.

SNS Call for Proposals 2024 – Information Day

On 22 January 2024, the SNS JU organized the Call for Proposals 2024 – Information Day webinar. More than 280 participants attended the event.

The intention of the webinar was to give a detailed overview of the SNS JU Call ambitions, focus and selection criteria and to assist those interested in submitting a proposal on Smart Networks and Services by answering to specific Call-related questions.

SNS OPS publication of the SNS Call 2023 Projects information

The Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) is pleased to unveil the selection of its new 28 research, innovation, and trial projects that will commence operations as of 1 January 2024 and will add themselves to the 33 running projects from the previous call.  The European Commission’s SNS OPS project has already published information on the Call 2023 projects divided into 3 streams:

• Stream B: Wireless Communication Technologies and Signal Processing
• Stream C: Complementary SNS Experimental Pan-EU Federated Infrastructure (RIA)
• Stream D: SNS Large-Scale Trials and Pilots (LST&PS) with Verticals–Focused Topic

SNS JU held its second Brokerage Event for the 2024 SNS Call

On 25 January 2024, the SNS JU has organized an online brokerage event to allow any organisation in the wider SNS JU community to present their organisation profile and/or interests to their peers – as an introduction for possible future collaboration(s).

More than 130 participants attended the online event, which featured 48 presentations.

To further assist stakeholders to form competitive proposal consortia, the SNS JU Brokerage Platform is also available. In this platform, any organisation can post its expertise or proposal ideas, and of course all can browse the information posted by other stakeholders.

The document is available here.

ITU advances the development of IMT-2030 for 6G mobile technologies

On 1^st December 2023, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) published the framework for the development of standards and radio interface technologies for the sixth generation of mobile systems, popularly referred to as 6G.

The details of the 6G framework are contained in Recommendation ITU-R M.2160 on the “IMT-2030 Framework” approved by the ITU Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-23) at its recent meeting in Dubai, UAE.

6G-SANDBOX signed MoU with Industrial Technology Research Institute

On 9 November 2023, 6G-SANDBOX project signed a MoU with Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) on Collaboration for Advanced 6G Experimentations.