Located at IMDEA Networks' headquarters in Madrid, the public-private partnership "NEC-IMDEA Networks Joint Research Unit on 5G Technologies" establishes an operational framework for close collaboration within a highly specialized team across a range of scientific activities. The JRU team will share its extensive knowledge and capabilities to jointly develop 5G solutions, architectures, technologies, and standards.
The work, led by experienced scientists Roberto González Sánchez and Andrés García Saavedra, both senior researchers at NEC Laboratories Europe, along with Arturo Azcorra, Joerg Widmer, and Albert Banchs from IMDEA Networks, will focus on key enablers of 5G and technologies that look beyond it. These include, for example, the use of artificial intelligence technologies to improve the performance and usability of 5G networks, and the development and study of new internet services.
The range of collaborative activities envisioned is broad and flexible. It includes joint participation in R&D programs and projects, staff selection and training, the development of platforms, applications, services and software tools, technology exploration and evaluation, technology transfer and R&D improvement activities through internal and external programs, and research dissemination activities.
Both entities have been deeply involved from the outset in the European effort to create 5G, the next (and fifth) generation of mobile networks. In fact, both have been members of the 5G Infrastructure Association since 2014, an organization whose membership has attracted 26 key industry representatives, 18 from academia, and 8 from independent organizations and SMEs, as well as 12 partners and 2 other associate members. This association operates with an EU budget of €700 million allocated to research, development, and innovation with the aim of creating a European 5G communications infrastructure that will be operational by 2020. Within the context of the 5G-PPP, both NEC and IMDEA Networks are actively participating in several 5G projects funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 program, such as 5G-Transformer (NEC) and 5G-EVE (IMDEA Networks).
