Advanced Architectures Systems and Technologies

The main goal of this opportunity is to advance technologies and architectures that simplify network operations, reduce operational costs, and enable new service models. It aims to design innovative and efficient 6G network architectures, develop techniques for AI operations with energy and real-time constraints, and explore serverless computing for diverse use cases. The focus areas include new architectural solutions, autonomous cognitive agents, goal-oriented communication, and deep learning models under constraints. This grant is open to eligible organizations in the EU, Associated Countries, OECD, and Mercosur, with some geographic and supplier restrictions.

• Project must clearly focus on one of the five specified priority areas, with the primary area explicitly stated:
  • New architectural solutions
  • Deep learning models with operational constraints
  • Real-time serverless computing for Function-as-a-Service (FaaS)
  • Autonomous cognitive agents in network-compute environments
  • Goal-oriented communication protocols for AI-driven machines
• Project must aim to reduce network complexity, operational costs, or enable novel service models through architecture or technology advancement.
• Project must present a comprehensive technical approach aligned with long-term 6G evolution goals, addressing performance, scalability, and interoperability.
• For AI-related proposals, must consider constrained learning, energy optimization, security, or physical/logical rule integration in model design.
• Proposals under serverless and cognitive agent areas must address low-latency orchestration, cold-start mitigation, multi-domain tasking, or agent collaboration in decentralized control frameworks.
• All proposals must meet quality thresholds and will be selected with a view to ensure portfolio balance across the five areas (one highest-ranked proposal per area guaranteed funding, budget permitting).

Examples:

• A research project designing a new, energy-efficient 6G network architecture for urban environments.
• A collaborative initiative developing AI methods for real-time network management with limited energy use.
• A project exploring serverless computing technologies for healthcare data across multiple domains.

• Personnel costs
• Subcontracting
• Travel and subsistence
• Equipment (depreciation or rental)
• Consumables and materials
• Dissemination and communication
• Access to research infrastructure
• IPR and certification
• Audit costs
• Indirect costs (25% flat rate)
• Internally invoiced services

• Budget for this Call: 15,000,000€
• Number of Grants attributed: 5
• Budget per grant: 3,000,000€

• Applicants must be legal entities established in EU Member States, Associated Countries, OECD countries, or Mercosur countries.
• Entities from Russia, Belarus, or non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible.
• Entities owned or controlled by non-eligible countries are excluded unless they provide guarantees that are positively assessed by their country of establishment.
• High-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment, or entities they control, cannot participate.
• Some topics may require additional guarantees to ensure no negative impact on strategic interests or security.
• Public bodies, research organizations, and higher education institutions must have a gender equality plan.