The Ministry of State, the Department of Media, Connectivity and Digital Policy, the Ministry of the Economy, the National Research Fund (FNR) and Luxinnovation have pooled their resources to offer companies and research institutions a new funding opportunity supporting consortia to take advantage of 5G communication technologies.
According to the European Commission’s ‘5G Action Plan for Europe’, the main objective was to make 5G commercially available in at least one major city in each Member State and to pave the way for the so-called ‘gigabit society’ by 2025, when all urban areas, main roads and railways should benefit from uninterrupted 5G coverage. But availability must not remain the main achievement, the focus must be on the adoption of products, services and systems that take into account new technologies and provide solutions for various application areas.
The 5G strategy for Luxembourg launched by the government focuses on the successful transition of existing communication technologies to 5G and comparable technologies. To underline the importance of a successful transition, the MSC launched two calls for tenders for proof-of-concept research grants. The projects co-financed under these two calls have shown promising results. The lessons learned from these calls have highlighted the need to further exploit the potential of 5G for the benefit of research organisations (public, private and public administrations) in Luxembourg. This allows all these parties to explore new research directions while using 5G communication technologies.
Objective of the call
New opportunities for businesses can be created through the use of 5G-based applications and communication systems. To be effective, the network communication and topology strategy requires state-of-the-art technologies that correspond to the latest scientific and technical advances in this field. In order to take advantage of existing communication applications and systems, 5G communication technology is essential and a key element in building a sustainable, competitive and digital economy in Luxembourg.
The specific objectives of the joint call for applications on 5G communication technologies are:
- Support innovation and sustainable value creation by stimulating strong partnerships between public research institutes and businesses in the field of 5G communication technologies.
- Increase companies’ expertise in 5G communication technology applications to improve their use of complex data transmission in areas such as IoT, edge computing and artificial intelligence.
- Encourage the implementation of innovative projects that contribute to the development of Luxembourg’s industrial and economic landscape and are in line with national strategic priorities.
- Increase the attractiveness of Luxembourg as an innovation hub based on advanced technological research on 5G communication technologies.
Areas covered by the call
- Smart environment: aims at the development and validation of applications based on 5G technology to monitor and respond to the state of the environment.
- Smart cities: aims to develop and implement solutions based on 5G technology to improve the efficiency, safety, sustainability and management of the urban environment.
- Industry 4.0: notably transforms manufacturing and production processes, including warehouse management and logistics, through intensive use of data, digitalisation and automation.
- Technologies: aims to define and develop innovative components and network topologies optimised to go beyond standardised 5G telecommunications networks.
More information and eligibility criteria on the Luxinnovation website