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Gerhard P. Fettweis, Vodafone Chair Professor, COREnect Project Coordinator, TU Dresden
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Amidst the recent geopolitical tension built between the US and China and the coronavirus crisis that puts the world on hold, the importance of Digital Technologies has been more pronounced than ever, in the context of a growing orientation towards a stronger European technological sovereignty, to decrease the dependence of European industry on American and Asian technologies. In the connectivity domain, it is vital that Europe reinvents its industry strategy, and develops core subsystems and component technologies for 5G and beyond. This requires concrete and coordinated actions from both the European telecommunications industry and the European microelectronics industry.
COREnect brings together the most prominent European industrial and academia players as well as industry associations in the network, microelectronics and verticals domains to jointly design a high-level strategic roadmap. The goal is to establish a sustainable European technology sovereignty in 5G and beyond, promote innovation and business opportunities e.g. for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), pave the way for one or more future European champions in this area, and lay a solid foundation for the long-term success of both industries. Its activities will be firmly rooted in the close collaboration between Smart Networks and Services (SNS) and Key Digital Technologies (KDT) communities.
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While 5G and beyond is widely regarded as critical infrastructure in Europe and a central point of gravity for enabling applications of other key digital technologies, the impact of COREnect roadmap will certainly reach beyond telecommunications, microelectronics and vertical industries towards also other industry domains and related communities, e.g., on High-Performance Computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), Photonics, IoT and Cloud. COREnect will have the potential to significantly impact the European R&I and industry landscape of future connectivity systems over the next ten years.
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Bernard Barani, Deputy Head of Unit Future Connectivity Systems, DG CONNECT, European Commission
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The new Political agenda defined by the Commission early 2020 has put Digital technologies at the heart of its priorities. In that context, it has been clearly outlined that Europe should do more to reach digital autonomy in strategic sectors and there is no doubts that both communication and micro-electronics technologies are essential to reach this objective. These sectors have been subject of strong support of Europe until now, notably through industry led partnerships like the ECSEL Joint Undertaking or the 5G PPP contractual partnership both implemented under Horizon 2020 with sizeable amount of public support leading to very tangible and prominent European successes.
Whilst Europe is a global leader in communication technologies and in multiple micro-electronics sectors like embedded system, Radio frequency technologies, high power components, the supply of enabling technologies for communication and networked platform is dominated by players from the US and Asia. The starting interest on 6G all over the world offers us a key opportunity to address now the new set of components that will be needed for the advent of such a new generation of smart connectivity systems. With concepts based on the use of THz frequency bands, merging of communication with sensing, high densification and edge computing, AI in networks, new generation of low consumption IoT devices, embedded security and low energy, there are multiple opportunities for the micro-electronics industry to lead in this new race if we move early.
This requires a strong collaboration from the onset between the connectivity and enabling technologies industrial and research actors. The next set of European partnerships under Horizon Europe that will address these sectors, Key Digital Technologies and Smart Networks and Services are currently being designed by the public and private stakeholders. They offer a not-to-be-missed opportunity for a close collaboration which can only succeed if a strategic micro-electronics roadmap for connectivity systems in Europe is agreed upon by all relevant European actors. COREnect has a key role to play in making such a roadmap available underpinning future industrial leadership and sovereignty in Europe and we are grateful to all the partners that have committed to this crucial initiative.
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A short overview of the COREnect project
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COREnect (European Core Technologies for future connectivity systems and components) is 2-year Coordination and Support Action project selected by the European Commission in the frame of the Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation programme. It started on July 1 st , 2020, for a duration of two years.
The COREnect will bring together the most prominent European industrial and academia players as well as industry associations in the network, microelectronics and verticals domains to jointly develop a high-level strategic roadmap of core subsystem and component technologies for supporting future connectivity.
The goal is to establish a sustainable European technology sovereignty in 5G and beyond, promote innovation and business opportunities e.g. for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), pave the way for one or more future European champions in this area, and lay a solid foundation for the long-term success of both industries.
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The COREnect project will conduct a comprehensive landscape and impact analysis, encompassing the whole value chain from vertical applications and the design of future connectivity platforms at system level to microelectronics ecosystems. Based on the technological gaps identified, three Expert Groups have been established (see section on Expert Groups).
The definition of the strategic roadmap will involve these three Expert Groups, supported by COREnect workshops and community building, ensuring coordination among industry and academia actors.
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A new “COREnect community” shall emerge from the close collaboration between the Key Digital Technologies (KDT) and the Smart Network and Services (SNS) communities, as well as with other related communities, e.g. IoT, Cloud, HPC, AI, and Photonics.
Through outreach activities via its extensive industry and academia network, COREnect has the potential to significantly impact the European R&I and industry landscape of future connectivity systems over the next ten years.
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The COREnect Expert Groups
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The role of the COREnect Expert Groups
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To facilitate a broad knowledge generation and to gain new insights on the matter, three Expert Groups (EG) are supporting the consortium with generating the roadmap content. Each Expert Group consists of internal experts, who are nominated internally by the consortium members, and external experts from Europe-based industries, SMEs, research institutes and universities.
The three EGs are
1. Computing/Storage
2. Communications/Sensing
3. Peripheral, with Security and Energy Efficiency as cross-cut considerations.
Therefore, each expert is able to integrate his/her area-specific knowledge in discussion with fellow experts with complementing expertise and thus, contribute to the final COREnect industry roadmap.
EG1 is looking into the ever-growing computing demands and requirements at both infrastructure and device sides and help us to identify critical, missing competence in the Computing/Storage area.
EG2 is focusing on the challenge of ever-growing data rates, capacity demands, and requirements on infrastructure and device side. Maintaining and assuring Europe’s leadership position in the Communication/Sensing area will also be part of the work of EG2.
EG3 is working on massive connections of heterogeneous devices and vertical applications to bring about synergies of a complete value chain and ecosystem.
We are very proud to count 68 confirmed experts so far, who are combining knowledge on system design and requirements (on the telecommunications side) and on the development of hardware (on the microelectronics side). The project is looking forward to counting on the expertise of the EG members to support the definition of a roadmap, as well as related strategies to implement this roadmap.
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Preliminary achievements of the COREnect Expert Groups
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A very fruitful discussion with the experts from all three groups happened at the EG first meeting. Different views and opinions on Europe’s position and the key challenges were already exchanged. COREnect could already collect some first inputs during the engaging exchange, and we were very pleased by the active participation and zest for action. We feel very honored to cooperate with such a broad pool of experts with wide-ranging expertise.
Since the jointly created industry roadmap will be presented publicly and will be assessed by different communities and stakeholders, it is crucial to mutually align the confidentiality rules within and after the meeting. Else, we clarified formalities regarding the Roadmap Work Package structure and how the exchange with the experts will be facilitated. We also announced that an online cooperation platform will be used to facilitate the interactions between the experts.
When the experts gradually arrive on the collaboration platform, the EG Chairs and Vice-Chairs will reach out to them, with the objective of identifying and aligning the major milestones within each EG area. Initial ideas will be publicly discussed at the 1st COREnect workshop (see the announcement in this newsletter).
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The first COREnect activities
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The COREnect project kicked off in the mid of pandemic with strong commitment from its 12 partners as well as with great support from the related units in the European Commission (EC). To ensure the relevance and impact of its outcomes to the European R&I and industry landscape in both microelectronics and connectivity domains, a strategy meeting was held early September involving the COREnect consortium and the EC.
The main objectives were to clarify expectations, discuss and align views on the priority topics, and agree on the way forward. The official project kick-off meeting was then held on September 7th, 2020. Work Package leaders presented initial work plans.
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The COREnect project organised its first internal workshop on strategy and vision on September 10th and 11th, 2020. In this workshop, all COREnect partners presented their own visions on “what should Europe do to address the problem of telecom component deficiencies”, sharing different perspectives from industry, RTOs, university and SMEs from the microelectronics, telecommunications and vertical domains.
The outputs of this internal workshop will be developed further into a document describing the initial strategy, vision and requirements for developing European core technologies in 5G and beyond while supporting the European strategic autonomy objectives. This deliverable will be put on COREnect website for public consultation early next year.
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The 1st COREnect workshop is announced!
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The COREnect project is organising its 1st workshop, entitled “Building European technological sovereignty in 5G and beyond”, that will be held inco-location with the EFECS2020 conference, on November 26th, from 13.30 to 15.30 CET. This is an opportunity for the Key Digital Technologies (KDT) and the Smart Network and Services (SNS) communities to come together, and elaborate a joint technology roadmap for European microelectronics and telecommunications industries.
Indeed, technology roadmaps can no longer be elaborated independently of the products and applications that will take advantage of – and be enabled by – the technological advances. This is why COREnect takes every opportunity to foster the common work between the KDT and the SNS communities, organizing workshops co-located with the leading conferences of these two communities. This workshop is the first of those events.
EFECS, the European Forum for Electronic Components and Systems, is the leading European forum for the European Components and Systems (ECS) community, that is a large part of the future KDT community. It routinely attracts more than 600 participants every year, covering the whole value chain and bringing together industry, academia, and policy makers.
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The COREnect workshop is designed to share information and encourage interactivity with the audience. After a short presentation of the objectives of the projects, you will hear the view and ambition of the EC regarding that Coordination and Support Action. Initial ideas from COREnect on the strategy and vision will be presented then discussed in a panel session answering questions from the audience. In a second phase, the COREnect Expert Groups will deep dive into the contents of the roadmap defining the hardware enabling technologies to be realized in the coming 10 years for supporting the vision. Again, introductory presentations will be followed by an interactive Q&A session, where experts from the KDT and SNS communities will exchange ideas and enrich the debate.
We are looking forward to a very lively two-hour session. Come and contribute to the building of European technological sovereignty in 5G and beyond.
Important note: registration in EFECS2020 is mandatory to attend the workshop. Under certain conditions, COREnect invites experts from organisations that are members of 5G IA, NetWorld2020, AIOTI, CISPE.cloud, NESSI, Photonics21, BDVA, euRobotics, and EuroHPC to request a free EFECS registration at the dedicated COREnect EFECS workshop registration desk, Free tickets will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis, with a deadline on November 8th, 17.00 CET.
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