• H2020
• Industrial Leadership
• ICT

An Asian telecommunications multinational has announced the creation of a European institute to co-ordinate the company’s growing array of R&D facilities.

Huawei announced the launch of the European Research Institute (ERI) on the final day of the European Business Summit in Brussels yesterday, which was attended by Horizon 2020 Projects. The ERI, to be located in Leuven, Belgium, is thought to represent a milestone in the company’s global innovation strategy. As a key tool for helping Europe achieve the targets of its Digital Agenda, the institute will further strengthen the ongoing partnership between Huawei and European industry.

The ERI will oversee the work of the 18 R&D sites that Huawei has established in eight European countries. The research activities of the network focus on next generation network technology; currently, Huawei has over 1,200 R&D employees in Europe.

Huawei rotating CEO, Guo Ping, said: “Europe enjoys a favourable industrial environment and is the global competence centre for Huawei. The ERI will manage Huawei’s European research and innovation activities, and strengthen our co-operation with European industry and academia.

“As digitisation transforms every business into a digital business, Huawei is working with its partners to achieve a smooth transition towards ‘Europe 4.0’ – the digitised European Union of the future in which everyone and everything will be connected. Our aim is to help Europe achieve smart growth and build a better connected Europe.”

The institute will support Huawei’s various 5G projects underway in Europe. As a member of several 5G research projects, including the EU’s METIS and 5G public private partnership, Huawei is working with partners to achieve breakthroughs in technology research.

The launch of the new ERI also highlights Huawei’s commitment to delivering on its European investment plans. Last year, Huawei signed more than 200 technical collaboration agreements with European partners, participated in 17 Framework Programme and Horizon 2020 projects and co-operated with over 160 European scholars and experts, as well as more than 120 academic institutions.

The new ERI will be headed by Dr Zhou Hong, who has been in charge of Huawei’s European R&D, standardisation and technical co-operation activities since 2014. The multinational has operated in Europe since 2000 and has a total of 9,900 employees on the continent.