UK/Republic of Korea Open RAN R&D collaboration
This collaboration offers a strategic opportunity for the UK and ROK to establish global leadership in the priority area of Open RAN network power efficiency.
About the competition
This competition is part of the government’s Open Networks Programme, which will deliver on the £250 million 5G Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Strategy through a range of telecoms R&D projects.
For this project, up to £1.6 million is available to fund a single UK-based consortium, which will collaborate with a ROK-funded consortium in order to:
- allow UK and ROK companies and research organisations to collaborate on Open RAN R&D and develop new products and solutions for the market
- accelerate the development of power-efficient technologies, products and solutions for Open RAN systems
- conduct a joint assessment of the overall power budget of open RAN base stations vs traditional base stations, in order to determine the critical items and make sure any progress impacts meaningfully on the consumption (assessment should consider industry standard approaches such as those set by the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance — products and/or solutions developed in the collaboration should match or exceed the performance of those provided by the market by the end of the collaboration)
- move power efficiency of Open RAN solutions closer to the benchmark set by incumbents by the end of the collaboration
The successful project will run until 31 March 2024.
Background
The UK’s 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy has set out a long-term vision for a telecoms equipment supply market underpinned by the principles of openness, flexibility and diversity.
A key part of this strategy relates to accelerating the development and deployment of open interface and interoperable solutions. Government believes that interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, have the potential, over the long-term, to present a genuine choice that offers security, reliability, and flexibility at a reasonable cost to operators.
Government also recognises the importance of international collaboration and policy co-ordination to drive long-term and sustainable change in the supply market. The UK makes up less than 2% of the global supply market so international partnership is critical in creating scale and opportunity for new and emerging entrants to establish themselves in the market.
Collaboration in international R&D allows for better access to new knowledge, markets and more efficient production technologies. International R&D can also result in shared costs between international partners, reducing the risk involved to individual countries. International R&D is also crucial to supporting the government’s diversification objectives because it enables technical knowledge sharing and cross-fertilisation of expertise; it provides growth opportunities for UK academia and industry; and is a chance to demonstrate soft power and UK leadership, while building bilateral relationships.
The Telecoms Diversification Taskforce recommendation: ‘long-term research and innovation’
The Telecoms Diversification Taskforce was appointed by the government in 2020 to look at where it should target measures to ensure effective, accelerated and sustainable diversification in the telecoms supply chain. The Taskforce was composed of leading figures across industry and academia, chaired by ex-BT CEO Lord Ian Livingston of Parkhead, and has been providing important, expert, independent advice and scrutiny to the government as it takes action to rebalance the supply chain.
The Telecoms Diversification Taskforce recommendations and report called on the government to invest in R&D to accelerate the development and deployment of Open RAN in the short term, but to also invest in long-term R&D on future generations of networks to build UK competitive advantage and ensure that high levels of security, openness and competition are central to the technology roadmap. The taskforce suggested that the Government develop a programme on research and development of future networks, and for future ‘network-of-networks’ in partnership with industry - operators and suppliers, academia, SMEs and start-ups, and to build on the UK’s existing world leading academia research base and research laboratories.
Open Networks R&D Fund
The government’s Diversification Strategy was backed by £250 million to invest in the Open Networks R&D Fund, which will run until April 2025. The Open Networks R&D fund will finance targeted activity, based in the UK, to support three objectives to:
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Accelerate the development of open networking technology from its infancy to commercial viability.
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Incentivise and reduce the risks of deploying open networks technology in the UK at pace, to encourage network operators to accelerate its adoption and deployment.
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Develop an internationally recognised UK telecoms ecosystem, to position the UK as a leading market for research in open network technologies.
The investment will be delivered primarily in the form of competed grants to consortia of capable businesses, academic institutions, and public sector organisations where appropriate and actual delivery of the R&D process will be carried out by the successful consortia.
Competition process and dates
The competition will run for eight weeks, with key milestones and deadlines set out below:
Competition opens: 26 July 2022
Briefing event: 3 August 2022
Deadline for clarification questions: 13 September 2022
Deadline for receipt of applications: 20 September 2022 at noon
Assessment of bids and interviews: September - October 2022
Successful applicant notified: November 2022
Grant claim period: December 2022 - 31 March 2024
Eligibility
This competition is open to applications from UK-based consortia of at least two organisations.
There must be an agreed lead applicant who will be the prime recipient of grant funding and who will be responsible for managing a consortium’s activities and for allocation of grant funding to other consortium members.
The lead applicant and/or consortium should have strong industry representation.
For more information, please refer to the ‘eligibility criteria’ section of the application guidance.
How to apply
To submit your application, please refer to the ‘How to Apply’ section of the Application Guidance.
Please send the application form and all the relevant documents to ONP.enquiries@dcms.gov.uk by noon on 20 September 2022.
Documents
Contact us
If you have any questions or would like more clarification, please contact us at ONP.enquiries@dcms.gov.uk.
Last updated 20 September 2022 + show all updates
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Added UK/Republic of Korea Open RAN R&D collaboration - clarifications
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First published.