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.

On Tuesday, December 8, 2020, the kick-off meeting of the international strategic project in higher education titled TEACH4EDU4 - Accelerating the transition to Edu 4.0 in HEIs was held by the project coordinator - the Faculty of Organization and Informatics (FOI) of the University of Zagreb. The 30-month project is funded under the Erasmus + program of the European Commission in the total amount of 296,845.00 euros.

The latest Ericsson report guides manufacturers on how to overcome challenges such as falling productivity and growth, disruptions in supply chain and legacy wired assets, and details use cases to describe what it takes to thrive in Industry 4.0. To accelerate the path to smart manufacturing, private cellular networks deliver fast, reliable, and secure connectivity required by manufacturers.

The University of Rijeka has a vision to become the European University of the Future - an open university that advocates inclusiveness, innovation, connection with the community, a university that goes beyond the walls of institutions, disciplines, borders. Certain step-ups, upturns and changes are necessary to bring every vision to reality.

At a time when everyone needs information the most, and at the same time, due to the situation caused by the Covid-19 virus pandemic, the University of Rijeka presents the first Croatian university virtual assistant - the owl URI.
 

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb has joined RISC-V International.

RISC-V International is a global nonprofit association based in Switzerland, which was founded in 2015 as the RISC-V Foundation and is now a global organization with over 700 members in more than 50 countries. Its goal is to promote RISC-V as a free and open Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration.

Combis is the exclusive holder of the VMware Professional Services Offering contract in Croatia. The company has proven its exceptional expertise on several projects in the country and the region.

The systems integrator Combis has been chosen as the holder of the VMware Professional Services Offering contract in Croatia for the entire Eastern Europe. Combis won the contract at an exclusive tender of the American software company VMware.

A new study by Nokia and Telefónica has found that 5G networks are up to 90 percent more energy efficient per traffic unit than legacy 4G networks. The research, which was conducted over a three-month period, focused on the power consumption of the Radio Access Network (RAN) in Telefónica’s network. The rollout of 5G networks is set to increase traffic dramatically making it critical that the energy consumed does not rise at the same rate. The findings highlight both companies’ commitment to climate change.

One month following the launch of the first commercial 5G network in six cities, Hrvatski Telekom continues to build the network of the future, which is now available in Đakovo, Našice, Požega, Varaždin, Vinkovci, Virovitica, Vukovar, and Županja. The 5G network is currently available in 14 Croatian cities and towns and covers one million Croatian citizens.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) projects that four out of every ten mobile subscriptions in 2026 will be 5G. This forecast is included in the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report. Current 5G uptake in subscriptions and population coverage confirms the technology as deploying the fastest of any generation of mobile connectivity.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Ericsson, in collaboration with Analysys Mason, have found that the potential economic value of full 5G as an ‘open innovation platform’ could add 210€ billion in benefits to Europe.

The study, 5G action plan review for Europe, which was conducted by Analysys Mason with input and funding from Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson, provides a cost-benefit analysis by both country and market segment, and recommends targeted public sector investment and policy change to drive the most value.

MIPRO is one of the coorganizers of the following HEIC 2020 conference that will take place on November 26-27, 2020. The conference will be held as a virtual conference due to the COVID-19 pandemics. Besides MIPRO, the conference is organized by the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM) in cooperation with Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE).

This year the HEIC conference consists of the presentation of papers and interesting plenary sessions which also includes “Education in and after COVID-19” discussion.

The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is of strategic importance and a key driver of economic development of the countries around the world. The positive effects of the application of AI are reflected in the greater competitiveness of the organizations, faster and better improvement of services and products.

NVIDIA DGX A100 features eight NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs, providing users with unmatched acceleration, and is fully optimized for NVIDIA CUDA-X™ software and the end-to-end NVIDIA data center solution stack.

On the 19th November Nokia has announced the world’s first 25 Gbps symmetrical PON fiber broadband solution. This unique solution works on Nokia’s existing next-generation PON hardware, such as access nodes and line cards, to offer truly universal PON capabilities and enable communications service providers (CSPs) to supercharge their networks and enhance fiber network usage.

Nokia is the first vendor to commercialize an end-to-end solution for 25G PON.
 

The latest Ericsson report guides manufacturers on how to overcome challenges such as falling productivity and growth, disruptions in supply chain and legacy wired assets, and details use cases to describe what it takes to thrive in Industry 4.0. To accelerate the path to smart manufacturing, private cellular networks deliver fast, reliable, and secure connectivity required by manufacturers.

The Croatian edition of the prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 award has been completed on 13 November. Algebra -  Hrvoje Josip Balen, Mislav Balković, and Tomislav Dominković were named as the new Croatian EY Entrepreneurs of the year.

HEP Toplinarstvo will finance the project of revitalization of 69.5 kilometres of hot water network in the City of Zagreb with the help of European Union funds. The total value of the project is HRK 700 million, presenting eligible costs of the project amounting to HRK 556.1 million excluding VAT. Of that amount, HRK 421.5 million is a grant from the European Regional Development Fund, while Hrvatska elektroprivreda will invest HRK 134.6 million from own means into Project implementation. So far, it is the biggest amount allocated to Hrvatska elektroprivreda from European Union Funds.