PNRR: the RESTART partnership for the future of telecommunications kicks off
Acronym for “RESearch and innovation on future Telecommunications systems and networks, to make Italy more smART”, RESTART, the most important national telecommunications project financed with PNRR funds and managed by the Politecnico among others, was officially launched at the kick-off meeting on 26 and 27 January in Milan.
The partners in this major project, under the leadership of the proposing “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, are 25 (12 universities, 3 national research organisations and 10 private organisations) and the investment amounts to 116 million Euro, divided into eight Spokes relating to eight major scientific topics. More specifically, 4.84 million Euro will come under the management of the Politecnico di Torino, which heads the Programmable Networks for Future Services and Media Spoke, dedicated to research on technologies for autonomous, green and digitised networks and services.
On the Spoke coordinated by Turin university, the project leader Carla Fabiana Chiasserini, lecturer at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications-DET, comments: “RESTART is a great opportunity to strengthen research and development activities in telecommunications networks and advanced services such as telemedicine and the control of autonomous systems, including robots, drones and next-generation vehicles.”
Approved by the Ministry of University and Research in 2022, RESTART will last three years and will have the ambitious goal of contributing to the evolution of telecommunications in Italy, already recognised worldwide as being excellent. Its main activities include fundamental and applied research, technology transfer including dissemination activities, support for start-ups and spin-offs, and training.
During the launch meeting at the Politecnico di Milano, Nicola Blefari Melazzi, president of the RESTART Foundation, which coordinates and manages the project, illustrated its objectives: “RESTART will set virtuous cycles in motion, leaving tangible and lasting results at the end of the plan, including the structural improvement of research in the sector, the ability to use telecommunications in the most diverse sectors, some specific initiatives aimed at industrial districts and at Southern Italy (Mezzogiorno), the digital transformation of industries and administrations, the creation of new companies and the increase in the average size of existing companies, the increase in the number of students, researchers and professionals in this field, by improving skills and reducing the gender gap and the North-South divide”.
Antonio Capone, RESTART’s scientific coordinator, emphasises the importance of the historical moment in telecommunications research: “The technological changes of recent years have triggered a transformation of communication infrastructures that allow research to be steered towards promising directions”.
The initiatives to improve the use of telecommunications are many and cover a wide range of sectors. And each of them strengthens the link between scientific excellence and business.
Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Politecnico di Bari, Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Università degli Studi di Catania, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II”, Università degli Studi di Padova, Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, Open Fiber S.p.A., TIM S.p.A., Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Wind Tre S.p.A., Ericsson Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., Prysmian S.p.A., Italtel S.p.A., Leonardo S.p.A., Athonet S.R.L. e Tiesse S.p.A.
