Go-ahead for 6G in industry: EU funds technology development with more than 13 million euros

The EU research project „Target-X” led by the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology IPT aims at the testing of new technologies for 5G and its successor 6G. With 5G technology becoming more common, the project focusses on continued research and development for industries such as automotive, construction, energy, and manufacturing. For this purpose, the Target-X consortium seeks up to 100 research partners to participate in the project, with a total available funding of six million euros. The TARGET-X project aims to demonstrate, validate, and evaluate the potential of 5G and 6G in the real environments of end-user industries. Therefore, the project will focus on real-time communication, localization, interactivity, the digital twin, and sensor networks. All developed solutions will undergo an evaluation based on metrics that consider sustainability, safety and security as well as privacy. The central goal is to create new business models and an assessment framework for evaluating the economic and social benefits of the developed solutions. The activities of the TARGET-X community, with the participation of up to 100 additional partners, will create a Europe-wide network of small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and IT and OT partners. This network will cooperate in the further development of the technologies, thereby create a medium-term impact

Interested companies can apply with their research topics for funding and collaboration in two cycles of open calls. The first application cycle will be open from May to July 2023 whereas the second cycle will last from November 2023 until January 2024. After the selection of finalists, the funding will correspondingly be distributed in two phases as well. The first funding phase is scheduled to run from January to July 2024. The second funding phase follows directly from August 2024 to April 2025. The interdisciplinary consortium, comprising companies and research institutions from various fields Is convinced that Cascade funding promotes participation and thus accelerates the development of new hardware, software, services, and business models.

As unique feature, the Target-X consortium partners have access to five testbeds located at two of Europe’s largest test facilities for their research and development. The Reference Construction Site of the Center Construction Robotics alone contributes over 4000m² of living lab area. In this environment RWTH University institutes as well as industry partners have the chance to test and evaluate innovative processes, products and concepts under real-life conditions.

More information: www.target-x.eu

Partners in the TARGET-X project

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Deutschland (project coordination); Ericsson GmbH, Germany; RWTH Aachen University RWTH, Germany; IDIADA AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY SA, Spain; Center Construction Robotics, Germany; FUNDACIO PRIVADA I2CAT, INTERNET I INNOVACIO DIGITAL A CATALUNYA, Spain; Marposs SpA, Italy; FundingBox Accelerator, Poland; Ericsson Arastirma Gelistirme ve Bilisim Hizmetleri Anonim Sirketi, Turkey; 5G Communications for Future Industry Verticals SL, Spain; Marposs Monitoring Solutions GmbH, Germany; Neutroon, Spain; Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. German Branch, Germany; FundingBox Communities, Spain; Qualcomm CDMA Technologies GmbH, Germany

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

May 26, 2023