FER started 2021 with a record 255 active scientific research projects, thus once again confirmed its status as the most desirable partner in applied research and innovation development, both in the domestic and in the international economic and research environment.

Last year, 111 projects were contracted, which is almost twice as many as in the newly contracted projects in 2019, when 57 projects started.

On 21 January Nokia and China Mobile (CMCC) announced that they have successfully completed live trials of an AI-powered radio access network (RAN) over CMCC’s network. Utilizing CMCC’s 4G and 5G networks, the companies completed an AI-based real-time user equipment (UE) traffic bandwidth forecast trial in Shanghai as well as a network anomaly detection trial in Taiyuan, the capital city of China’s Shanxi province.

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

Google has presented a valuable competition for Central and Eastern European organizations. It will award a total of €2m in grants to selected tenderers from Croatia and ten other countries in the region to support their charity projects. Among the experts who will help Google choose valuable projects is Hrvoje Josip Balen, co-founder and board member of Algebra.

On 24 January, KONČAR Group, the regional leader in power engineering, marks its 100th anniversary. Over a century of business operations, it has established itself as one of the largest Croatian exporters and one of the longest-lived Croatian companies.

During 2020, the KONČAR Group achieved some of its greatest successes, and in addition to the successes of the past year, KONČAR has demonstrated innovation and competitiveness in the market through the development and production of high-tech products for markets around the world.

Nokia announced on 14 January a continuation of its long standing T-Mobile partnership with a five-year deal. T-Mobile will utilize Nokia’s AirScale Radio platform to deploy an Ultra Capacity 5G layer with 2.5GHz Massive MIMO technology, shifting the Un-carrier customer experience into overdrive. Under the new agreement, Nokia will continue to expand T-Mobile’s extended range (low-band) 5G coverage. Both the extended range and Ultra Capacity enhancements will augment user experience and network capacity by leveraging T-Mobile’s multi-layer spectrum strategy.

Telstra, in collaboration with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. on 19 January announced the successful completion of a new 5G maximum download speed record on a commercial network of 5Gbps for a single user. The 5G NR data call was performed at the 5G Innovation Centre on the Gold Coast using the commercial production network.

Croatian ICT company Comping has achieved Red Hat Container Platform Specialist status in the new Red Hat partner program. This status confirms Comping's successful collaboration with Red Hat, an American multinational software company that provides open source software products to companies.

The European Commission has announced on 8 January 2021 the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to reinforce their cooperation to support the best European entrepreneurs. This will enable innovators, innovative SMEs and start-ups, higher education institutions and research organisations to receive quality support services to deploy and scale up innovations faster and with greater impact.

The European Commission will invest around €178 million in 42 highly innovative start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs)  through the new European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund in order to help them to develop and scale up breakthrough innovations in health, circular economy, advanced manufacturing and other areas. Among them, the French company CorWave is the first EU company in which the EIC Fund is investing.

The tenth edition of the Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) ConsumerLab 10 Hot Consumer Trends report highlights consumer predictions about the various roles that connected intelligent machines could take on going forward. Each of these roles could be seen as new service areas, opening a range of opportunities for 5G service providers to gradually extend intelligent networks to their customers.

Today Nokia provides an update on its strategy and operating model. On October 29 Nokia announced the first phase of its new strategy, outlining high-level strategic principles alongside a new operating model designed to better position the company for changing markets and align with customer needs. The new model is effective from January 1, 2021. Detailed business group strategies will be provided on Capital Markets Day on March 18, 2021.

The Commission has proposed on 15 December an ambitious reform of the digital space, a comprehensive set of new rules for all digital services, including social media, online market places, and other online platforms that operate in the European Union: the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.

Hrvatski Telekom and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb today launched the first 5G Campus Network in Croatia, which allows the scientific and business community, students, and start-ups to work on development projects based on 5G technology in the field of Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence applications.

Ericsson Nikola Tesla and Hrvatski Telekom have signed an agreement on the delivery of microwave transmission technology that includes hardware, software, and maintenance. Thus, Ericsson Nikola Tesla becomes the exclusive supplier of Hrvatski Telekom in this area through the end of 2024. The signing of this agreement continues the modernization of Hrvatski Telekom's network.

On 14 December 2020, the Commission has welcomed the political agreement between the European Parliament and the EU Member States on the first EU programme that aims to accelerate the recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe. Trilogue negotiations have now concluded, pending the final approval of the legal texts by the European Parliament and the Council.

Worth €7.5 billion (in current prices), the Digital Europe Programme is a part of the next long-term EU budget that covers the 2021-2027 period. It will provide funding for projects in five crucial areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.

Nokia announced on the 10th of December that its Digital Operations Center software solution was selected as a winner in the 2020 Fierce Innovation Awards in the business support systems/operations support systems category, furthering Nokia’s market leadership credentials in automated 5G solutions.

Hrvatski Telekom, in cooperation with the Volunteer Center Zagreb, has launched a national digital education program for the elderly. In the first phase of the Program, which is part of a broader socially responsible concept, "In Good Hands", Hrvatski Telekom donated tablets and free internet for 14 nursing homes throughout Croatia. Next year, the Program will include additional homes.

On 3 December 2020 Nokia held a virtual awards ceremony and announced the winners of the 2020 Bell Labs Prize, a competition that recognizes disruptive innovations that will define the next industrial revolution. Proposals were received from 208 academics in 26 countries, and Firooz Aflatouni, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at University of Pennsylvania, received $100,000 for winning the competition with his proposal for Integrated Photonic-mmWave Deep Networks.

Google presented the Grow Croatia with Google initiative, which aims to significantly contribute to the recovery and development of the Croatian economy and accelerate the digital transformation, thus responding to the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Grow Croatia with Google initiative is adapted to the "new normal" and is implemented in partnership with the University of Algebra and offers tools, courses and tips such as free online digital marketing courses, free tools for collaborating with teams and suppliers using Google Meet and workshops to help people in acquiring relevant digital skills that can help them find a job, advance in a career, or develop a business.