On 15 November 2018, the Annual General Meeting and the NetWorld 2020 European Technology Platform meeting took place in Brussels. Representatives of the CTIT Technology Platform took part in this event and not only that. This year, Chairman of the CTIT Technology Platform, Jiří Fuchs ran for the group of member groups of the so-called Research Group in the ETP NetWorld 2020 Steering Board.
The main topics of this year’s session were the research areas in the 2021-2027 programme period, which will follow Horizon 2020. The FP9 Framework Program, to be called Horizon Europe, has been under preparation in the past 2 years, and there are now proposals for themes and structures for its implementation. This issue has been discussed with the present European Commission representatives.
Additionally, panel discussions on 5G progress were made. Particular emphasis was put on achieving the goals so that SMEs contribute to 5G research and create the conditions for wider use of 5G systems.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to vote members of the Steering Board, opposed to the plan. As noted by the President of ETP NetWorld 2020 Rui Aguiar, we have become “victims” of our own success. For explanation, even though more than 30 subjects from the Research group were represented at a meeting in Brussels, this group is so large that even this number did not allow us to reach the required quorum to make the election. That is why a per-roll vote was agreed.
Individual members of the Research Group can vote until December 10, 2018, so we are currently waiting for the results and we will keep you informed on the next issue of the newsletter.
Despite this minor complication, the event was an excellent opportunity and platform for discussion among ETP members, experts and representatives of the European Commission.