International Joint R&D Program

There is a need to establish an international cooperation framework with reliable foreign governments, corporations, etc. as strategic partners—with whom synergies can be created—at an early stage of the Promotion Strategy, to conduct joint R&D of cutting-edge constituent technologies for realizing Beyond 5G, and to work on international standardization.
This program promotes international joint R&D projects of cutting-edge constituent technologies conducted in collaboration with such partners in the technology fields where coordination is possible.

The target technologies to be developed through the open-call sponsored research projects of this program are those for realizing the following key features of Beyond 5G specified in the Promotion Strategy: ultra fast & large capacity, ultra low latency, ultra numerous connectivity, autonomy, scalability, ultra security and resiliency, ultra low power consumption. We called for proposals of projects to be implemented in collaboration with foreign partners and domestic organizations, such as research institutes.

For the evaluation of the R&D project proposals, we will particularly focus on the framework of collaboration with foreign organizations such as research institutes, contribution to international standardization efforts, etc.
The R&D period is set, in principle, as within 3 years from the start date of the R&D activities. The annual budget size (the planned amount to be covered by NICT) per proposal is set as an amount between tens of millions yen and hundreds of millions yen, and the specific amount is determined based on the scale of each R&D project.