Grenoble, 07 June 2022 – AENEAS Industry Association and 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) announced today during the EUCNC & 6G summit in Grenoble, France, that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The two industry associations will seek to strengthen communication and cooperation between them, with the common objective of contributing to Europe’s leadership and technological sovereignty in beyond 5G and 6G networks and services, enabled by a strong European Electronic Components & Systems (ECS) industry.

This MoU demonstrates both associations’ ambition to build on their relationship established within the EU’s COREnect Coordination and Support Action (CSA) under Horizon 2020.

COREnect, which comes to an end in June 2022, brought together European industry and R&D leaders from both the microelectronics and telecommunications sectors. They worked on the joint development of a high-level strategic roadmap of core technologies for future connectivity systems and components, targeting next generation telecommunications networks and services. In signing this MoU, AENEAS and 6G-IA aim to further strengthen the synergies between the private side of the European ICT sector and the ECS ecosystem represented by AENEAS.

The MoU between AENEAS and 6G-IA also aligns with the European Commission’s ambition to drive closer collaboration and more efficient synergies between two new European Partnerships (Joint Undertakings or JUs) set up in late 2021. These JUs mobilize all European stakeholders to deliver innovative solutions in Europe to cover not only technological and business goals, but also societal needs of the European citizens. They include the Key Digital Technologies (KDT) JU, which is directly relevant to the ECS industry, and the Smart Networks and Services (SNS) JU which is relevant to the telecommunications industry. Reinforcing the coordination between these JUs offers the potential to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies for beyond 5G and 6G systems based on European electronic components and systems.

“Many major European and pan-European initiatives are launched to speed up the transition towards a green, climate-neutral, digital and resilient Europe. These include the KDT and SNS partnerships, the IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies, the proposed EU Chips Act, and the Xecs Eureka Cluster. AENEAS members are active within all these initiatives, and we believe it’s also essential to bring together the ECS and SNS communities. This will promote increased cross-fertilisation of the microelectronics and connectivity ecosystems, support pooling of research and innovation resources, and ensure that research results are turned into impactful innovations,” says Kurt Sievers, AENEAS President, and President and Chief Executive Officer of NXP Semiconductors.

Dr. Colin Willcock, chairman of the 6G-IA Board and chairman of the SNS JU Governing Board, states: “The SNS JU targets several ambitious objectives, including strenghtening Europe’s technological leadership in digital technologies and supporting industrial uptake of these new technologies to enable the digitization of vertical sectors. In addition, the SNS JU will support key European policies such as sustainability, technological sovereignty, green transition and cyber-security. To achieve these goals, the pan-European mobilization and coordination among various stakeholders from different domains are vital. This MoU between the 6G-IA and AENEAS is an important step to connect complementary European technological sectors and enable creation of globally significant results.”

Among the key actions foreseen in the MoU, AENEAS and 6G-IA have agreed to encourage sharing of non-confidential information through awareness raising events such as conferences and webinars. These will particularly focus on SMEs and opportunities for participation in EU, national and trans-national R&I funding instruments. The associations will also explore possible future coordination among funding instruments, and work to increase cross-fertilisation and mutual contributions to strategic research and innovation agendas, as well as the promotion of cross-domain projects where this appears to be feasible (e.g., EUREKA Clusters). Through such actions, they aim to benefit both their communities along with Europe’s wider social, economic, and environmental goals.

About AENEAS:
AENEAS is an Industry Association, established in 2006. The purpose of the association is to promote Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) in order to strengthen the competitiveness of European industry across the complete Electronics Components and Systems (ECS) value chain. AENEAS provides unparalleled networking opportunities, policy influence & supported access to funding to all types of RD&I participants in the field of micro and nanoelectronics enabled components and systems, and its applications. Partner in ECSEL JU and the new KDT JU, AENEAS is also operating the EUREKA funded Clusters Xecs, PENTA and EURIPIDES².
More on AENEAS: https://aeneas-office.org

About 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA):
The 6G-IA is the voice of European Industry and Research for next generation networks and services. Its primary objective is to contribute to Europe’s leadership on 5G, beyond 5G and SNS/6G research.
The 6G-IA brings together a global industry community of telecoms & digital actors, such as operators, manufacturers, research institutes, universities, verticals, SMEs and ICT associations.
More on the 6G-IA: https://6g-ia.eu/