Saltar para o conteúdo principal

FCCNFCT Digital Services

Access the national information on scientific and technological funding in Portugal

Activity Funded

Instituto de Telecomunicações

Instituto de Telecomunicações

Reference
UIDB/50008/2020
Project Start Date
2020-01-01
Project End Date
2024-12-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Engineering and technology
Funding Program
Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Base

Abstract

10.2 Summary in English for general dissemination purposes Evolution in telecommunications evolution is so fast that is tends to beat all prediction. In the period (2018-2022) anticipated challenges are ever more user demanding services requiring increased data rate, availability (everywhere, always) and data security. Many types of sensors while be largely deployed, and will require extensive improved telecommunication networks and massive data transmission and processing. This implies not only increased spectrum and energy efficiency, but also improved friendlier human interfaces, all this while reducing costs for mass market deployment. Telecommunication technologies will extend its applications into healthcare and medical diagnostics. Organic and biocompatible materials will be the core of many new electronic devices. Metamaterials with exotic properties will enable performance improvements in many components. Fundamental research, namely in the field applied mathematics and quantum physics may well provoque paradigm shifts, namely in telecommunication security. IT has been involved in the on-going telecommunications evolution and wants to strengthen it and its international standing not only as an R&D contributor, but also as member of the international bodies that set research policies and standards worldwide. Two examples of such prominent positions currently held by IT members are “Chairman of the JPEG Requirements Group, ISO/IEC”, and “Chairman of the Steering Board of 5GPPP Networld”. Examples of IT technology maturity are the involvement in the design of two cubesats, one scheduled for launch by ESA in 2019 and a larger one to be launched in 2020, the record that IT holds with NICT(Japan) of a 20 Tbit/s data rate transmission in a single optical fiber and the the “Annual Collaboration Team Award” as well as the “Best Collaboration with Huawei Wireless, 2015”, awarded by Huawei Technologies. The following “target topics” were selected to guide (but not restrict) its R&D activities for the 2018-2022 period: A. Internet of Things, from sensors to reasoning B. Beyond 5G C. New space technology D. Autonomous mobile systems E. Quantum technology F. Bio Applications and Health G. Cyber Security H. Low energy systems I. Digital reality and gaming These are not independent topics, on the contrary they are interlaced. Therefore the organization of IT activities will not split through these lines, but rather follow a cooperative approach exploring internal multidisciplinary synergies as well as its international cooperation network. IT will continue to use FCT funding to promote internal cohesion, quality and productivity policies that cannot be fully supported by product-oriented traditional projects. The main vectors of these policies are: incentives indexed to researcher’s productivity, Transition scholarships to secure high potential young researchers at master level, in internal small seed projects, to allow teams exploring bold high-risk ideas to advance telecommunications. 10.3 Summary in English for evaluation Evolution in telecommunications occurs at an extremely high pace, which deters long-term prediction. However, in the medium-term, the anticipated challenges for telecommunications will be to increase spectrum efficiency, channel capacity, number of connected nodes, energy efficiency, service availability and communications and data security. This will be needed to respond to ever more demanding services for the end user, to process, classify and store ever increasing amounts of data, to improve human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interaction/communication, while reducing costs for mass market deployment. It will encompass new developments on mm-wave technology including electronics, agile antennas, agile networks, cognitive radios, redesigned heterogeneous cellular systems including massive use of small sats, new materials namely metamaterials, graphene and organic materials, quantum technology, photonic technology, energy harvesting systems and wireless power transmission. On data analysis and processing, new developments are expected on pattern recognition, machine learning, data coding, and security algorithms. Cross-fertilization between telecommunications and other disciplines including life sciences will continue to increase. All this will require paradigm shifts that will only be possible with strong backing from fundamental research. IT has already been contributing along the above vision throughout recent years, and wants to strengthen it and its international standing not only as an R&D contributor, but also as member of the international bodies that set research policies and standards worldwide. Two examples of such prominent positions currently held by IT members are “Chairman of the JPEG Requirements Group, ISO/IEC”, and “Chairman of the Steering Board of Networld2020 European Technology Platform (ETP)”. Two evidence examples of technology maturity are the involvement in the design of two cubesats, one scheduled for launch by ESA in 2019 and a larger one to be launched in2020; the second example is attested by the record that IT holds with NICT (Japan) of a 20 Tbit/s data rate transmission in a single optical fibre Expertise at IT broadly covers wireless communications, optical communications, networks and multimedia and basic sciences and enabling technologies. The technology readiness level ranges from fundamental research to pre-commercial technology transfer. This diverse expertise will concur to continue acommon effort that has been developing at IT to address new challenges and, whenever possible, new paradigms. The following “target topics” were selected to guide (but not restrict) its R&D activities for the 2018-2020 period: A. Internet of Things, from sensors to reasoning B. Beyond 5G C. New space technology D. Autonomous mobile systems E. Quantum technology F. Bio Applications and Health G. Cyber Security H. Low energy systems I. Digital reality and gaming These are not independent topics, on the contrary they are interlaced. Therefore the organization of IT activities will not split through these lines, but rather follow a cooperative approach exploring internal multidisciplinary synergies as well as its international cooperation network. IT will continue to use FCT funding to promote internal cohesion, internationalization, quality and productivity policies that cannot be fully supported by product-oriented traditional projects. The main vectors of these policies are: - An incentive programme, assigning extra funding indexed to the researcher’s productivity and quality level. This requires a judicious tracking of researchers’ achievements, which is based on a powerful research information system (RIS) and on a productivity-points system. This program fosters research quality and consequently international recognition, which favors in turn international cooperation. - Transition scholarships to secure high potential young researchers at master level, while they wait for grant institutions like FCT going through lengthy selection and hiring for PhD programmes. - An internal programme of small seed projects, around 20K€/year to allow teams exploring bold high-risk ideas to advance telecommunications, that would hardly find traditional external funding. For instance this is fundamental to cherish fundamental research, which is the base to address future technology paradigm shifts. Only multi-discipline or multi-group project proposals are accepted to foster interworking. Several projects from past editions of these programmes, generated compelling results that evolved to full-blown projects with much larger external funding. A few successful start-ups raised from IT, were rooted on these seed projects. - Partial support of laboratory equipment upgrade to cope with obsolescence and technology evolution. This is a major requirement to maintain IT competitiveness when applying to international project calls, namely H2020 and ESA. Basic and pluriannual funding from FCT allows leveraging IT funding from other sources, up to doubling the amount requested in this proposal.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Instituto de Telecomunicações Lisboa (IT)
  • Instituto de Telecomunicações Lisboa (IT)

Funding 5.729.284,15 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

5.729.284,15 €