Sophia Antipolis, 21 May 2014

ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and EIT ICT Labs, the Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Technology (EIT) will sign a Letter of Intent, at the ETSI headquarters in Sophia-Antipolis, on May 28, Inauguration Day of the EIT ICT Labs Sophia-Antipolis Co-location Centre. This agreement between ETSI and EIT ICT Labs will help future entrepreneurs to foster innovation through standardization.

EIT LabsThis initiative will focus on the standardization of results in various areas where both EIT ICT Labs and ETSI are developing activities, such as 5G, security & privacy, urban life and mobility and other areas of common interest. While the focus is on standardization the collaboration may include joint research and education activities as well.

ETSI brings in experts from all stakeholders of the ICT world while the EIT ICT Labs co-location centers enable to bridge the gap between academia and industry. This will no doubt pave the way to a fruitful collaboration between both organizations and benefit ICT innovation at large.

“Bringing together ETSI and EIT ICT Labs respective communities and experts is a way to leverage standardization in Information and Communication Technology in Europe. Standards help to develop an eco-system for industry, covering diverse and broader markets, which in turn leads to growing and successful businesses” says Luis Jorge Romero, ETSI’s Director General.

“It is the mission of EIT ICT Labs to bring innovations to life. Standardization is an important tool in achieving this especially when it comes to platforms and infrastructure solutions that are going to be deployed at large and will affect the life of hundreds of millions of people. The collaboration with an established player like ETSI in this is a great value for EIT ICT Labs and Europe”, says Willem Jonker, CEO EIT ICT Labs.

Amongst others the new EIT ICT Labs Satellite, located in Sophia-Antipolis technology park, a leading R&D hub in Europe, will facilitate the collaboration with ETSI.

About ETSI
ETSI produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, aeronautical, broadcast and internet technologies and is officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards Organization. ETSI is an independent, not-for-profit association whose more than 700 member companies and organizations, drawn from 63 countries across 5 continents worldwide, determine its work programme and participate directly in its work.

About EIT ICT Labs
EIT ICT Labs is a pan-European ecosystem that unites global companies, top ranked universities and leading research centres in the area of innovation driven by ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). EIT ICT Labs is a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an initiative of the European Union. The mission of EIT ICT Labs is to drive European leadership in ICT innovation for economic growth and quality of life. By linking education, research and business, EIT ICT Labs empowers ICT top talents for the future and brings ICT innovations to life.

Contact:

ETSI
Claire Boyer 
Tel: +33 4 92 94 43 35
Cell: +33 6 87 60 84 40
Email: claire.boyer@etsi.org

EIT ICT Lab
Johanna Gavefalk
Tel.: +46 73 460 7786
Email: johanna.gavefalk@ictlabs.eu