The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) will launch a public call for proposals for 6G research projects in Japan. The agency announced it aims to start accepting applications in April or May.
For now, NICT has opened a preliminary survey that will serve as the basis for future calls for proposals. However, NICT may already select projects to partially fund in this phase. Submissions are due on February 25.
According to the Japanese body, the survey will help to “investigate and understand in advance whether there are any projects that R&D project implementers are working on with a strategy and determination for social implementation and overseas expansion, as well as their outlines and budget sizes.”
NICT will focus on three priority programs in the preliminary survey, indicating the direction the agency will take in the next phase regarding the next G research:
- All-optical network-related technologies
- Non-terrestrial network-related technologies
- Secure virtualisation and integrated network-related technologies
Projects in this phase must aim to reach level 3 of technology readiness, which, according to NICT, requires proof of concept of “important functions and characteristics through analysis and experimentation (predictive evaluation of each elemental technology through experimental methods and analytical research, etc.).”
Private companies, universities, and research institutes registered in Japan can participate. NICT will also accept proposals by consortiums.
While the timeline can change, the agency expects to end the entire preliminary survey process around March. The final selected 6G projects, including the ones submitted in the public call phase, should be known around July this year.
