An unprecedented model in Brazil, Embrapii Competence Centers will place the country on the map of trends in innovation, in areas such as 5G and 6G, immersive technologies for virtual worlds and Open RAN
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and Embrapii (Brazilian Company for Research and Industrial Innovation) announced on 05/24 the institutions selected to form three Embrapii Competence Centers (CCs) in areas of frontier technology, such as 5G and 6G, immersive technologies applied to virtual worlds and Open RAN (Open Radio Access Networks). In total, R$ 180 million will be invested to carry out research in sectors of innovation trends and to train technological skills. With the support of CCs, Brazilian industry will be able to follow this movement and access the possibilities offered by still emerging technologies.
The initiative is carried out in partnership with the MCTI, with financial resources from the PPI IoT/Manufacturing 4.0 Priority Program. Public Call 01/2022, which provides for the selection of Competence Centers, was published last year, with the selection process starting in August.
“We are recovering investments in knowledge production, especially in highly specialized technologies. This innovation support model conceived by MCTI with Embrapii means the union between academia and the productive sector in search of solutions for the demands and challenges of the industry of the future. By creating innovation hubs, the Competence Centers will attract qualified labor, stimulate research and development activities, in addition to training human resources and contributing to the development of highly complex technological solutions”, Luciana Santos, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The model is unprecedented in Brazil and these are the first three of nine Competence Centers that Embrapii will announce throughout Brazil later this year. In all, Embrapii will invest R$ 495 million to create the CCs, not including resources from other sources that the selected research centers will raise, including companies associated with the Technological Association. The results for the areas of Advanced Therapies, Cybersecurity; Intelligent and Connected Hardware Platforms; and Quantum Technology.
“The Embrapii Competence Centers will build knowledge and create reference points for research in areas of frontier technologies, whose development is structuring and strategic for the country's positioning in the world economy. We want to put Brazil once and for all on the map of this new innovation ecosystem and in a prominent position for research”, said Igor Nazareth, interim president of Embrapii.
The CPQD (Center for Research and Development in Telecommunications), in Campinas (SP), will work on the theme of Open RAN, which aims to develop open technologies for telecommunications network infrastructure. Currently, these networks are dependent on few vendors and proprietary solutions. Open RAN will allow companies to specialize in the development of software and hardware, based on open specifications, allowing the emergence of new companies in the segment, and will make it easier for network operators to use solutions from different suppliers and new components of different providers.
The intention of Open RAN is to allow the combination of technological solutions, regardless of the vendor. The adoption of Open RAN will allow telecommunications operators' systems to move their systems to the cloud, within a process of virtualization of the network infrastructure.
The National Telecommunications Institute – Inatel, in Santa Rita do Sapucaí (MG), was selected for the Embrapii Competence Center in the area of 5G and 6G Connectivity Technology and Infrastructure. Despite already being deployed around the world, research activities are still ongoing to complement current specifications for 5G networks. At the same time, research institutions and international forums are already developing norms and standards for the next generation of mobile networks – 6G. It will be able to enable the implementation of applications based on technologies that require high transfer rates and low latency, such as autonomous transport, remote surgeries, wearable technologies, among others. The trend is that 6G has a transfer rate of 1 Terabit per second - reaching, for the first time, the frequency of Terahertz (THz) -, while 5G has 1 Gigabit per second - operating at frequencies of Gigahertz (GHz).
And finally, the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at the Federal University of Goiás (CEIA-UFG), in Goiânia (GO), was selected for the Embrapii Competence Center for Immersive Technologies Applied to Virtual Worlds. Research will be carried out on technologies that aim to simulate the physical world through virtual reality, creating a feeling of immersion, stimulating the senses – vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste – and creating real sensations.
investments
The three Embrapii Competence Centers will receive an investment of R$ 180 million, with R$ 60 million for each selected institution. The resources will be applied over a period of 42 months in a series of actions that combine expansion and strengthening of scientific and technological competence in RD&I; training and qualification of human resources in these areas; technological association (membership model) and attraction and creation of startups.
The Competence Centers will leverage and strengthen the ICTs that already have competence in the thematic area, as well as develop knowledge to meet business technological challenges. In addition, they should become innovation hubs in the regions where they are headquartered. The presence of the Centers attracts skilled labor, companies and investments related to RD&I activities, consequently generating an increase in the region's HDI and per capita GDP.
EN 
PT 
