UNICO I+D 6G
Programme for the Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion – 6G R&D
Call for tenders
Explore the tender opportunities available at the Public Procurement Services Platform of the Generalitat de Catalunya
Recent updates
16/04/2024

“From Intent to Action: The Role of Smart Discovery in the 6GENABLERS Marketplace”. Don’t miss the last blog post on the 6GENABLERS-DLT project written by Adriana Fernández, senior researcher at i2CAT. Read here

11/04/2024

“The role of mobile operators in industry 4.0”. Don’t miss the last blog post on the 6GSMART-ICC project written by Jose Manuel Palacios, Telecommunications Senior Expert, Minsait, an Indra company. Read here

22/03/2024

Yuri Murillo, the Strategic R&D projects lead at i2CAT, participated in the 5G/6G Days organized by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, directed at electrical and electronic engineering students from all over Spain. He presented the six projects that i2CAT is coordinating within the UNICO I+D 6G programme, promoted by the Spanish government’s Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan with Next Generation EU funding.

14/03/2024

“The Convergence of Private 5G and Industry 4.0: Transforming Manufacturing”. Don’t miss the last blog post on the 6GSMART project written by Rolando Guerra-Gómez PhD – Senior Researcher at Neutroon Technologies S.L. Read here

22/02/2024

“The Smart Contract System in 6GENABLERS-DLT: The door to a Telco Marketplace”. Don’t miss the last blog post on the 6GENABLERS-DLT project written by Daniel Ruiz, a researcher at Atos. Read here

24/01/2024

A fruitful internal session was held between the i2CAT research teams leading the six projects coordinated within the framework of the UNICO I+D 6G programme. The researchers shared the current status of their projects and defined the next steps to continue advancing in the design and initial prototyping of 6G.

27/11/2023

During the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2023), celebrated in Baku (Azerbaijan), researchers of the 6GSatNet project presented these three papers:

  • “Virtual Satellite Network Simulator (VSNeS) – A Simulation Engine to Virtualize Non-Terrestrial Networks”
  • “Implementation of a protocol stack with DTN protocols for IoT services deployed from Non-TerrestrialNetworks”
  • “Study to integrate Delay-Tolerant Network Protocols in IoT LEO constellations for Flood Prevention”
27/11/2023

Estel Ferrer, Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua, Francesc Betorz, Josep Escrig, researchers of the 6GSatNet project, presented the paper “Inter-Satellite Link Prediction with supervised Learning based on Kepler andSGP4 orbits” during the 25th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence (CCIA 2023)

27/11/2023

Estel Ferrer, Josep Escrig, Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua, researchers of the 6GSatNet project, presented the paper “Inter-Satellite Link Prediction for Non-Terrestrial Networks Using Supervised Learning”, during the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) & 6G Summit 2023

15/11/2023

Identifying the Ideal DLT for a Telco Marketplace: Insights from the 6GENABLERS-DLT Project. Don’t miss the last blog post on the 6GENABLERS-DLT project written by Angel Martin, Senior Researcher at Vicomtech. Read here

13/11/2023

6GSMART-ICC: Paving the Way for the Industrial Cloud Continuum and Public-Private Network Interconnection. Don’t miss the last blog post on the 6GSMART-ICC project written by Estela Carmona, PhD – Senior Researcher, Software Networks, i2CAT Foundation. Read here

08/11/2023

On November 16, Yuri Murillo, Strategic R&i Projects Lead at the i2CAT Foundation, will participate in the third edition of the V5G-Days to be held in the Nexus Auditorium of the Universitat Politècnica de València. He will participate in a double session titled “UNICO 5G/6G R&D at i2CAT: projects, ecosystem and preliminary results”, in which he will introduce the six projects coordinated by i2CAT within the framework of the UNICO funding program and review the preliminary results and the general state of the program. Check the complete program here

19/10/2023

Dr. Joan A. Ruiz-de-Azua, a researcher of the 6GSatNet project, has intervened in the SCSS workshop within the 14th International Conference on ICT Convergence, celebrated in Jeju Island (Korea) from 11 to 13 October. He conducted a keynote speaking titled “Towards 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks – A Perspective from the Internet of Things Use-Cases” to explain the evolution of satellite systems and their relevant role in achieving ubiquitous service, seamless coverage, and servicing ultra-high density areas.

19/10/2023

Researchers from the 6GSatNet project have participated in the last edition of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), celebrated in Baku (Azerbaijan) from 2 to 6 October. They presented some of the project’s results, generating a significant impact and exciting topics to discuss.

05/10/2023

As a part of the 6GSatNet project, on October 26, the i2CAT Foundation will host the workshop “Interplanetary Internet of Things: Protocols, Routing and Simulation”, by researcher and professor Juan Fraire. This workshop delves into the Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) architecture and the Bundle Protocol (BP), highlighting their roles as the backbone for a store-carry-and-forward networking framework for the Space Internet.

Find out more and sign up here

28/07/2023

Tenders are open for the 6GTWINROAD – SP3 project, based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to support the creation of a digital twin of a road vehicle environment.

The call addresses companies, SMEs and universities, and the period for submitting offers will be open until August 28.

Check the tenders here

13/07/2023

Final tender resolution of 6G ENABLERS here

13/07/2023

Final tender resolution of 6G SMART here

13/07/2023

Final tender resolution of 6G-OpenVerso-Holo here

10/03/2023

Dr Hatim Chergui, researcher of the 6G ENABLERS project, will be chairing the “Workshop on Scalable and Trustworthy AI for 6G Wireless Networks” during the IEEE International Conference on Communications, which will be celebrated in Rome (Italy) from the 28th of May to the 01st of June 2023. During the session, experts will discuss the use of AI algorithms for (AI)-enabled sixth-generation (6G) zero-touch automated wireless networks, which is one of the main objectives of the 6G Enablers project. Find out more

22/02/2023

In the coming weeks, tenders for the 6G SMART, 6G ENABLERS, 6G TWINROAD, 6G SATNET, and 6G OpenVerso-Holo projects will be opened. 

18/01/2023

Within the framework of the 6G SatNet project, researcher Arnau Singla is speaking this morning at the 33rd edition of the AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (Austin, Texas) to present the article “Towards 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks – An Autonomous Constellation Management Engine”. More information

02/11/2022

Tenders for the 6G TWINROAD project will be opened between November 18 and 23, aimed at creating digital twins for connected and autonomous mobility (CAM) on roads based on 6G technologies.

The call is addressed to companies, SMEs and universities that want to participate in the project.

Likewise, in the coming months, the opening of tenders for the projects 6G OpenVerso-Holo, 6G SatNet, OPEN 6G, 6G OPENVERSO-Net and 6G ENABLERS- DLT for 6G: Smart Marketplace is expected.

11/10/2022

6G SatNet-GS at the Abu Dhabi 6G Summit 2022
On November 3-4, Moha Mosahebfard (i2CAT) will present the “Towards Quantum-Enabled 6G Slicing” poster, linked to the 6GSatNet-GS project, at the 6G Summit in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Funded by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service and the European Union-NextGenerationEU within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Government of Spain.

Within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for research and innovation projects in the deployment of advanced 5G and 6G technologies, framed within the UNICO I+D 6G programme, i2CAT has been awarded 19 research projects and a complementary activity for a total amount of about € 16,5 million to be executed in 36 months, starting in January 2022.

The projects are grouped into 6 coordinated projects plus an action to support the recruitment of talent. All projects are led by i2CAT, which will execute 30% of the budget and subcontract the remaining 70% to large companies, SMEs and research organizations through public procurement procedures.

One of the objectives of these grants is to increase the leadership of public research groups in 5G, being a benchmark in the technological development of advanced 5G and 6G. For this reason, part of the aid will be dedicated to promoting the promotion and attraction of talent in the field of Telecommunications Engineering studies, with a particular emphasis on gender equality and the international arena.

The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan serves as a framework for different programs and actions that will facilitate the universalization of access to ultra-fast broadband throughout the territory and accelerate the deployment of 5G. This initiative is part of the UNICO I+D 6G Program.

6G Program Director

Dr. Jesus Alonso-Zarate

Strategic Program Manager

Dr. Yuri Murillo

6GENABLERS

3 subprojects
PI: Dr. Shuaib Siddiqui
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Trust, Privacy & Security
  • Network automation
  • Marketplace: DLT
  • Holoportation

6GSatNet

3 subprojects
PI: Dr. Sergi Figuerola
  • NTN
  • 5G+ Core
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Inter-Satellite Link
  • SDN over satellite
  • Cybersecurity

6GTWINROAD

4 subprojects
PI: Dr. Jesús Alonso-Zarate
  • CAM
  • V2X Communications
  • Network Slicing
  • Remote driving
  • Digital Twins

Open6G

3 subprojects
PI: Dr. Xavier Costa Pérez
  • Open RAN
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Network automation
  • Wireless Sensing
  • Intelligent Surfaces

6GSMART

4 subprojects
PI: Dr. Daniel Camps Mur
  • Private 5G/6G
  • Time Sensitive Networks
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cloud Continuum
  • Industry 4.0

6G-OpenVerso

2 subprojects
PI: Dr. August Betzler
  • 5G/6G Testbeds
  • Intelligent Open Networks
  • Integrated Sensing and Communications
  • Cloud Continuum
  • (SaaS) Multi-party Holographic communications

Plan for the Promotion of Telecommunications Studies

PI: Dr. José Miguel Sanjuán
  • International Talent
  • Iberoamerican Universities
  • Promotion of studies in 5G/6G
  • Workshops in Spain for foreign students

Shaping the 6G vision

In this White Paper, we introduce i2CAT’s view on the future 6G system and we highlight the key technical areas where i2CAT will focus its 6G R&D efforts in the upcoming years.

We also describe a set of key R&D assets that will help us maximize the impact of our 6G research.

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