The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding four German-wide research hubs looking into the next generation of mobile radio „6G“. The consortia consist of multiple universities and research institutes and combine unique knowledge for the development of new hard- and software, which will be also transferred to real applications in a later project phase. Stephan Pachnicke, Head of the Chair of Communications at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, is participating in the „6G Research and Innovation Cluster“ (6G-RIC), which is led by the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute (HHI). The goal of the cluster is to develop the next generation of mobile radio systems with open interfaces and breaking existing technological barriers. Also, an extensive test infrastructure will be created during the project. The total funding of the 6G-RIC project is 70 Million Euros over a period of 6 years.

The Research Minister, Mrs. Karliczek, commented:

„6G will be the mobile broadband technology of the future and will revolutionize the next century. 6G will be the central nervous system of our networked lives starting around 2030 and allow more than 100 times higher data rates than 5G combined with much higher energy efficiency and reliability. I am sure that the 6G research hubs will drive innovations in the communications fields of the future and will qualify future experts. They give us the unique opportunity to play as world-leaders for the future 6G mobile radio generation.“