Global Business Innovation Programme in the USA, India and Japan - Future Telecoms
Innovate UK invites applications from innovative companies that are focused on solutions in future telecoms, to participate in a GBIP to the USA, India or Japan.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
06/06/2024
Registration Closes
24/07/2024
Award
Innovate UK will fund and organise flights, accommodation, in-market travel, and conference fees for successful applicants. Innovate UK will also pay for any reasonable adjustments throughout the initiative. One representative from each company will be funded.
Organisation
Innovate UK
Note: This opportunity is fully funded support and not monetary funding.
Future Telecoms is a key sector for the UK economy and offers exciting opportunities for ambitious UK businesses. The USA, India, and Japan are international markets where opportunities have been identified for UK businesses in the Future Telecoms sector. To capitalise on the opportunities, we have organised three separate GBIPs.
Please see more details about the scope and goals of each programme below.
Important notice: You are only allowed to participate in one of the three Future Telecoms GBIPs (if your application is successful), therefore, please ensure you prioritise the market that will benefit your business more.
You can apply for more than one of the upcoming Future Telecoms GBIPs but must rank them in preference order in your application form. If you are successful with more than one GBIP, this will help us to identify your preferred choice of market.
If you wish to apply for more than one GBIP, you must fill out a separate application form for each one by following the links included in each GBIP section below.
The application deadline for all three GBIPs is on Wednesday 24th July 2024 at 5pm.
Find out how our GBIPs in the USA, India and Japan can help your business grow.
A recorded briefing is now available.
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A GBIP has three stages:
Prepare for the market
Preparing for the market includes the cohort being briefed by sector and market experts on, for example, cultural aspects of conducting business in that country. Delegates receive help to find business partners and arrange meetings and are advised on best practice including the management and protection of their intellectual property.
Visiting the market
Visiting the market provides opportunities to attend pre-arranged meetings and activities in order to better understand and maximise the opportunities that the visit presents.
Exploiting the opportunity
Exploiting the opportunity is arguably the most important aspect of the programme. To maximise the opportunity, participating companies are given bespoke one-to-one support from an Innovate UK EDGE innovation and growth specialist to help develop and implement an action plan.
The Global Business Innovation Programme operates on a competitive basis and businesses selected are required to participate in all three stages (some or all of which may be online).
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To apply for this initiative, you must:
- Be a business focused on developing innovation solutions in future telecoms.
- Be a UK-based innovation-led company with ambitions to grow and internationalise.
- Be a company with fewer than 250 employees.
- Be the CEO, founder, or a senior decision maker in the business able to attend and complete all activities.
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Why the USA? The USA is one of the UK’s closest partners within telecommunications, it is home to a number of world leading industry players. Open and interoperable solutions are at the heart of the US policy, with the government investing $1.5 billion into open RAN development through the 10-year Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation fund.
Toward 6G the US is engaging internationally with bilateral mechanisms in place with partners such as India and the European Commission, amongst others. They also undertake outreach to ‘rest of world’ partners through international roadshow events and are a founding member of the Global Coalition on Telecommunications.
The USA is a world leader in space and the provision of Non-Terrestrial networking. The country is also leading in the deployment of private 5G in industrial use cases and the adoption of innovative connectivity within use cases such as in the automotive sector.
Focus themes: We invite applications from a wide range of innovative companies, that are focused on solutions in the following areas:
- Non-terrestrial networking technologies
- 6G preparedness and accelerated research on 6G
- Hypervisors and the telecom cloud
- Industrial use cases of private 5G / advanced connectivity
- Open RAN and standardisation
Key technologies:
- Satellite Communications
- Cloud / Software defined networking
- Artificial Intelligence
Application form can be found here
- Application deadline: Wednesday 24th July 2024 at 5pm.
- Get ready workshop: Tuesday 3rd & Wednesday 4th September 2024
- Visit the market: Sunday 6th – Sunday 13th October 2024
- Exploit the opportunity workshop: Wednesday 15th January 2025
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Why India? India has the second largest telecommunications network in the world and demonstrates many similarities with the UK telecommunications strategy.
Areas of common interest and strength include Open RAN, Non-Terrestrial Communications, Software Defined Networks, the use of AI and secure networks.
The scale of the Indian market and existing relationships with the UK around research and development provide a great opportunity for innovative UK telecoms businesses to partner with Indian organisations on key challenges facing the industry.
Focus themes: We invite applications from a wide range of innovative companies, that are focused on solutions in the following areas
- Open RAN hardware with a view to UK supply chain diversification
- 6G preparedness and accelerated research on 6G
- 5G labs – technology and use case specific labs.
- Collaboration between industry and academia
Key technologies:
- Ultra-low latency use cases, metaverse etc, the use of AI on networks
- Software defined networks / telecom cloud
Application form can be found here
- Application deadline: Wednesday 24th July 2024 at 5pm.
- Get ready workshop: Tuesday 3rd & Wednesday 4th September 2024
- Visit the market: Saturday 12th – Saturday 19th Oct 2024
- Exploit the opportunity workshop: Wednesday 22nd January 2025
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Why Japan? Japan is the third largest economy in the world (by GDP) and has one of the highest R&D investment levels (R&D expenditure as a % GDP), producing some of the largest numbers of scientific publications and patents globally.
The country is home to a large share of multinational corporations competing globally, with more than 200 companies on the Forbes Global 2000 list and has the third largest corporate R&D spending worldwide behind the United States and China.
Japan is a long running partner of the UK in the Asia Pacific region. The UK and Japan have forged close links on telecoms and have signed a working agreement in 2022. Various Japanese companies have telecoms labs and a presence in the UK including NEC and Rakuten who recently opened an OpenRAN centre.
We have common interests in the development of global telecommunication standards and strategy. Japan’s Beyond 5G Promotion Strategy focuses on enabling the country to maintain and develop its competitiveness as the world progresses towards 6G and beyond.
Focus themes: We invite applications from a wide range of innovative companies, that are focused on solutions in the following areas:
- Standardisation
- Advanced wireless / optical communications
- Open RAN with a view to UK supply chain diversification
- 6G preparedness and accelerated research on 6G
- AI and Cybersecurity
Key technologies:
- Optical networking technologies
- Open RAN
- Advanced wireless hardware
- AI and Cybersecurity technologies
Application form can be found here
- Application deadline: Wednesday 24th July 2024 at 5pm.
- Get ready workshop: Wednesday 16th & Thursday 17th October 2024
- Visit the market: Saturday 9th – Saturday 16th November 2024
- Exploit the opportunity workshop: Wednesday 12th February 2025
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To learn more about the programme, watch the recording of the applicant briefing from the 26th of June.
Deadline for applications for all three GBIPs is 24th July 2024
For enquiries: