October 26, 2016 Outcomes of the “6th Japan-EU Symposium on ICT Research and Innovation”

The 6th Japan-EU Symposium on ICT Research and Innovation was held by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and European Commission on October 6th and 7th at Makuhari Messe International Conference Hall, Japan. In the symposium, achievements and progress from Japan-EU coordinated call projects based on “Strategic Information and Communications R&D Promotion Programme (International Standardization Acquisition Type)^*1” were reported. Here, the technical needs and seeds that would lead to future funding of calls were shared as well. In addition, special sessions were held regarding the ways of collaboration between Japan and EU, with participants from various acceleration and standardization organizations on IoT/Smart City; the areas in which we can expect significant ripple effects. Throughout these activities, the significance of Japan-EU joint research projects were reconfirmed, and by utilizing this framework, we have recognized the importance of strengthening our Japan-EU collaboration in order to promote further developments regarding ICT.

• *1
  Competitive funds to outsource R&D based on broad public invitations for innovative ICT sectors. International Standardization Acquisition Type targets Japanese research institutes collaborating with foreign organizations to promote standardization and implementation of their study results.
• *2
  Smart IoT Acceleration Forum, New Generation M2M Consortium, The Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC), Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI), HyperCAT etc.

1. Results

1. Achievements and Progress Reports from Japan-EU Coordinated Calls

Achievements from 6 projects in the 1st call (FY2013 to FY 2015; the area of studies are optical communications, wireless communications, information security, Cloud and IoT, network testbeds and etc.), progress reports from 4 projects in the 2nd call (FY2014 and after; the area of studies are optical communications, Smart City/Big Data and etc.) as well as progress reports from 5 projects in the 3rd call (FY2016 and after; the area of studies are 5th generation mobile communication system, IoT/Cloud/Big Data and etc.) were reported.

2. Future Collaboration of Japan-EU Coordinated Call

Towards future funding call, researchers from industry, academia and government from both Japan and Europe have provided information on the technical needs and seeds regarding 4 areas of study (5G applications, secure hyper-connected society combining IoT/Cloud/BigData,advanced technologies for beyond 5G, and Smart City/Smart Home), and shared the points to consider regarding each research issues.

【Examples of the Points to Consider Regarding Technical Needs/Seeds and Research Issues】

• 1.
  5G applications: Automobiles, robots, VR, tele-surgery, slicing, network security, multi domain operations, mapping with vertical requirements, validating core evolutions, trials with users needed, and collaboration and harmonization on spectrum and standardization activities etc.
• 2.
  Secure hyper-connected society combining IoT/Cloud/BigData: Agility against emerging threats, automatic vulnerability discovery and patching,open-sourcing of security tools, IoT security, advanced cloud/edge, cloud security, data security, privacy protection, data anonymization, block chain, cyber physical interaction, critical information infrastructure protection, interoperability/SDK/API for secure smart city, personal digital assistance for Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, cross border application demonstrations, etc.
• 3.
  Advanced technologies for beyond 5G: Millimeter wave, terahertz wave, visible light communication, harmonization of advanced optical technologies and radio technologies for back-haul and front-haul etc.
• 4.
  Smart City/Smart Home: 【Smart City】Energy management, transportation system in a city, maintenance system for life infrastructure,edge/fog/cloud computing, low power, scalability, interoperability, standardizing platforms, system architectures, application programming interfaces, data sharing among cross-market/cultural platforms, managing distributed data among different communities and regions, bridging different standardizations, technical verification etc. 【Smart Home】device management, protocol, interoperability of home gateway and sensors,common smart city platform, Acceleration of HEMS (Home Energy Management System) development and spread, cooperating edge/fog computing technologies, emulation platform, technical verification etc.

3. Promotion of Japan-EU industry-academia-government collaboration on IoT/Smart City

“IoT/Smart City Special Session” was held to share objectives and activities of Japanese and European standardization/promotion organizations in IoT/Smart City area. Experts from the industry delivered keynote speeches to introduce activities and future plans regarding IoT platforms and social design in the era of IoT/Big Data/Artificial Intelligence. In the panel discussion, the panelists discussed the collaboration between Japan and EU aimed for the promotion in this area. Here, the necessity to enhance the collaboration between industry-academia-government was confirmed, as well as the promotion of innovation, standardization and the building of ecosystem, by utilizing the characteristics and strengths regarding the culture, issues, technologies etc. possessed by both Japan and EU.

The agenda and related materials are available here .

2　Future Plans

The next Japan-EU Symposium will be held approximately an year later, following the confirmation with EU.

【Press Release】“6th Japan-EU Symposium on ICT Research and Innovation”

http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01tsushin04_02000065.html