Arturo Azcorra joins the Partnership Board of the 5G Infrastructure Association in Europe

11 September 2014

Professor Arturo Azcorra, a pioneer of internet and network science research in Spain, has been elected member of the Partnership Board of the 5G Infrastructure Association. This body provides European-wide leadership in the design of next-generation advanced communication systems. The ultrafast mobile broadband technology of the future, branded as 5G, will be the foundation of the future Internet, and is expected to withstand data connections 1,000 times heavier than today’s.

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A Full Professor at the Department of Telematics Engineering at University Carlos III of Madrid and the Founding Director of the networking research institute IMDEA Networks, Arturo Azcorra is one of only two university professors to have been voted onto this select group of top international experts.

The rest of a total of thirteen board members are renowned professionals from world-leading companies in advanced communication systems.

The 5G Infrastructure Association is an international Non-Profit based in Ghent, Belgium. Its activities cover both research on networks and 5G communication systems and the development of global standards, for instance through the organization of debates on future frequency bands. It also promotes R&D in the EU’s networking industry and works to increase its competitiveness by providing new tools and production capacities within Europe. In this context, the Association supports both the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, developed by the European Technology Platform NetWorld2020 (a research think tank that outreaches over 1000 members), and the industry roadmap developed by the 5G Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership Association (in short 5G PPP).

The role of the Partnership Board within the 5G PPP is to be the main mechanism for dialogue and mutual collaboration amongst the circa 60 ICT research entities that compose it. This 7 billion € research action jointly funded by the private sector and the European Commission will operate for 7 years within the Horizon 2020 program. The PPP spearheads the development of “H2020 Advanced 5G Network Infrastructure for Future Internet PPP”. This program is intended to deliver solutions, architectures, technologies and standards to create ICT infrastructure and intelligent communication networks that are ubiquitous, robust, flexible, interoperable and cost effective.

The full composition of the Partnership Board now consists of Arturo Azcorra (IMDEA Networks), Marnix Botte (Alcatel-Lucent), Emilio Calvanese-Strinati (CEA-Leti), Brigitte Cardinael (Orange), Nicolas Chuberre (Thales), Giovanni Corazza (University of Bologna), Christine Leurquin (SES), Jacques Magen (Interinnov), Magnus Madfors (Ericsson), Werner Mohr (Nokia), Karl Schattauer (Alcatel-Lucent), David Soldani (Huawei) and Terje Tjelta (Telenor). With this appointment, IMDEA Networks strengthens its role as one of the key players in the concerted European effort to develop 5G as the first instance of a truly converged infrastructure, integrating IT and network resources, wired and wireless communications.