RESTART Foundation and Asstel together to promote research and innovation in the telecommunications sector
Training a new generation of telecommunications engineers prepared for the fourth industrial revolution, including telecommunications-related courses in academic curricula, and sharing ideas and data to understand the evolving dynamics of the telecommunications industry and the roles of different players. These are just some of the goals identified in the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed by Asstel President Massimo Sarmi and Prof. Eng. Nicola Blefari Melazzi, president of the RESTART Foundation.
«The Telecommunications supply chain will be increasingly strategic for the country’s competitiveness and development, as our companies are enablers of digital transformation through the provision of connectivity and the creation and development of new digital services directly related to it. In this scenario, there is therefore a need to integrate new professionals in companies who are capable of driving innovation by activating the virtuous circle of skills, innovation, new services and value generation. Big data, Cloud, IoT, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and 5G industrial services are key sectors that need innovative professional figures. The speed at which processes and technologies are evolving requires increasingly careful analysis to better target training and reduce the gap between supply and demand. The signing of the MoU with RESTART Foundation goes in this direction: collaboration between institutions, representative associations, and businesses is vital for the spread of digital skills. Only in this way will we be able to facilitate the entry of young people into the world of work with a set of skills in line with the needs of the productive world». – said Asstel President Massimo Sarmi.
As part of the initiative, the analysis and mapping of current expertise in the telecommunications sector, as well as a forecast of its future development, will be carried out.
«The RESTART research and development program, “RESearch and innovation on future Telecommunications systems and networks, to make Italy more smart,” is the largest public project ever funded in Italy in the Telecommunications sector, with €116M.
RESTART has the ambitious goal of helping to outline the evolution of Telecommunications in Italy, helping to revive a sector that still has professionalism and experience at the level of world excellence, devoting itself to the main topics of Telecommunications science and technology, including all types of systems and networks, for human and non-human users. For example, high-capacity fixed networks; 5G/6G cellular networks; local area networks; satellite networks; the Internet; and applications and services in the most diverse sectors: agriculture, commerce, energy, finance, industry, media, health, security, and transportation.
RESTART’s activities are structured into seven “missions”: 1) Research; 2) Laboratories, Proof of Concept, and Demonstrators; 3) Innovation and Technology Transfer; 4) Support for Start-ups and Spin-offs; 5) Education and Training; 6) PhDs; and 7) Communication, Standardization, and Open-Source Solutions. Thus, it gives importance not only to research, which is its central element, but also to cross-cutting activities and in particular to the fundamental issue of Education and Training.
In fact, one of the most felt problems in the sector today is the lack of skills: the number of people studying STEM disciplines, and particularly TLC, is far from meeting current needs; what is more, a large number of graduates and technicians leave the country every year, and the balance of flows between incoming and outgoing researchers is largely negative. This emigration, if not reversed, will continue to transfer intellectual and then substantial wealth abroad, causing to the whole country what it has caused in the past to Southern Italy.
Innovation and then business development cannot happen without skilled human resources and an R&D substrate. Therefore, the collaboration between the RESTART Foundation and ASSTEL has as its initial goal to help reduce the current skill gap in the industry.» – said Professor Nicola Blefari Melazzi