The mix of COREnect’s partners makes it unique and powerful - An interview with Fredrik Tillman
Ericsson is a COREnect partner and a global leader in delivering ICT solutions. 40% of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. Ericsson has customers in over 180 countries and comprehensive industry solutions ranging from cloud services and mobile broadband to network design and optimization.
The services, software, and infrastructure - especially in mobility, broadband, and the cloud - are enabling the communications industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve user experience and capture new opportunities. Ericsson has one of the industry's strongest patent portfolios.
Fredrik Tillman is a Research Manager at Ericsson AB with focus on integrated radio circuit design for both cellular infrastructure and device connectivity.
He has been the Ericsson driver for multiple external collaboration projects within the Horizon 2020 framework. In COREnect Fredrik coordinates the Ericsson contributions and acted as lead editor of the White Paper “Passive user or innovative driver? Europe's future role in microelectronics and connectivity”.
1. How did you join COREnect? What is your role in the project?
I joined the COREnect project back in 2019 and have together with my colleague Björn Ekelund been driving the Ericsson activities. I’m also a task leader in WP2 looking into strategies for Europe to become a key player in the race towards 6G. As part of this work COREnect recently published a White Paper with the intention to visualize the fundamental shifts in value creation that connectivity and microelectronics enable. I had the honour to lead the editing work and together with project partners derive recommendations for the EC to consider.
2. What are your expectations from a project of this nature for your organisation?
Ericsson is global telecommunication company and wants connectivity to be a natural part of all societies across the world. To achieve this, there must be strong ecosystems for innovation and development in all regions, where Europe represents one important actor. The COREnect project provides an opportunity to help the EC to strategically approach 6G with relevant public research programs and initiatives. This will enable Ericsson to benefit from its large footprint in Europe and motivate further investments.
3. In your view, could COREnect impact the European strategy in microelectronics and connectivity in the next 10 years, and how??
COREnect is of course just one of many impactful projects in the field, but I do believe that the mix of partners makes it unique and powerful. Especially also considering that COREnect hosts a large expert community from leading entities across Europe. We see already today initiatives being launched by the EC and member states where COREnect has been influential, and I’m positive that our strategic guidance will be considered in the future as well. Given the current situation with semiconductor shortages and challenging supplier dependences, the scope of COREnect will remain to be crucial for Europe and I am confident that we will see many spin-off activities based on our initial work.
