EU doles out a further €127 million for 6G

The Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), a Brussels-backed body with the remit of coordinating 6G research across Europe, announced the winners of its third funding call on Wednesday. The 16 winning projects span a range of 6G-related spheres, including networking, sensing, security, chipsets and, of course, AI. They also include plans for showcasing use cases and implementing large-scale trials and pilots across the bloc.

Erzsébet Fitori, Executive Director of the SNS JU, described the third funding call as "a milestone" for the body, "which reaches...more than €500 million of EU investment from Horizon Europe dedicated to future connectivity."

Horizon Europe is the EU's funding programme for research and innovation, and has a war chest of €93.5 billion for the 2021-2027 period. The SNS JU was set up with a budget of €1.8 billion, and has now committed to spending over a quarter of that sum; €507 million to be precise.

In October 2022 its first call for proposals saw it allocate €250 million to 35 projects ranging from what it described as mid-term 5G to experimental infrastructures that could be used for 6G. A second call followed this time last year with another 27 projects awarded a share of €130 million, this time with a stronger focus on 6G that has only intensified in the third round.

"We have already seen remarkable progress in beyond 5G advancements, exploratory 6G concepts, initial 6G experimental infrastructures, and innovative use cases [and] trials with vertical sectors," Fitori said, as she unveiled the winning projects.

The projects awarded funding via the third call represent "the next wave of 6G research and innovation," she said.

Fitori only briefly described the 16 projects (there's a full list here), but there are a couple of points to highlight from her presentation.

Firstly, it's worth noting that the SNS JU received 109 proposals from 1,874 applicants in the third call, with grant requests totalling €863 million, more than 7 times the available funding.

"The overwhelming number of responses received to our third call for proposals shows that there is a strong interest from a wide ecosystem of researchers, technology innovators, network operators, industrial sectors and SMEs," Fitori said.

And she was particularly keen to point out the role that those smaller companies have to play in the 6G R&D effort.

"25% of the participants in our projects are SMEs, highlighting our commitment to fostering innovation at all levels," she said. There are 301 beneficiaries involved in the 16 projects, hailing from 25 countries.

Not all of those countries are in Europe.

"We are also very pleased to have international collaborations, with Japan and South Korea alongside our ongoing cooperation with the United States," Fitori said.

6G-MIRAI was one of the chosen projects, whose focus is around reliable AI native wireless systems, using cell-free massive MIMO and next generation virtualised RAN. It will be carried out in partnership with Japan. Similarly, 6G-ARROW, which is all about the use of AI in radio access networks, is a partnership with South Korea.

"These international partnerships underscore our commitment to global cooperation in shaping 6G standards," Fitori said.

Essentially, everyone's playing together nicely at this stage, but we can probably expect the gloves to come off when it's time to start claiming 6G firsts in a few years time.