Finland – The hotspot for 6G research and development

Finland is a forerunner and a leader in mobile communications development since the GSM was launched decades ago. Telecommunications is one of the key technologies from which Finland is globally known of. In the new digital era, seamless telecommunication is more and more important as the work directly contributes to the development of other industries and the digital infrastructure of our society. 6G will provide tools for the digitalization and automation of the 2030’s society. It will also help in fulfilling United Nations sustainable development goals.

Business Finland's 6G Bridge program paves the way for 6G and aims to help in maintaining the Finnish forerunner status. The 6G Bridge program aims to make Finland the global leader in providing new value with 5G Advanced and 6G technologies for sustainable industries and societies e.g. in smart cities, smart energy, smart ports and smart factories with different ecosystem players. These provide a concrete and versatile foundation also for the new 6G collaboration – both from the mindset and impact points of view.

The 6G Bridge program encourages top-notch Finnish researchers and companies to increase radically both national and international collaboration – also outside the EU. The program goals will be met e.g. by:

• Increasing ecosystem-driven collaboration in research and innovation for 5GA/6G
• Building future business ecosystems in 5GA/6G and attracting international investments
• Strengthening the key capabilities in 5GA/6G
• Fostering testing and experimentation facilities in 6G

The Finnish Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, SRIA (pdf), provides an excellent referential roadmap for the 6G Bridge programme. In addition, it is concrete evidence of the unique industry-academia and ecosystem cooperation that we have in Finland, and that is one of our assets in the global competition.

The program will run from January 2023 until the end of 2026 with a planned budget of EUR 130 million for innovation funding. The 6G Bridge program is an important part of the Digital Native Finland mission. It will help Finland to maintain leadership in future connectivity and provide growth opportunities for Finnish companies.

Target groups

Target groups for the 6G program are e.g.:

• Business: ICT industry including large companies like Nokia and Ericsson
• Research: 6G Finland, 6G Flagship, 5G Momentum, Allied ICT Finland, Academy of Finland, Technology Industries of Finland
• Foreign companies that have the resources to invest in Finland

Program services

The 6G Bridge offers following services:

• Business: innovation funding for Finnish companies for business development
• Internationalization services for Finnish companies
• Research: funding for Finnish research organizations

• Invest in Finland services for foreign companies
• Business: innovation funding for foreign companies that are register in Finland 

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