INESC TEC is a private non-profit research institution with 35 years of experience in R&D and technology transfer, dedicated to scientific research and technological development, technology transfer, advanced consulting and training, and pre-incubation of new technology-based companies. As an institution operating at the interface of the academic and business worlds, INESC TEC typically applies the knowledge and results generated as part of its research in technology transfer projects, seeking value creation and immediate social relevance. INESC TEC incorporates 13 R&D Centres, structured in four thematic domains – Computer Science, Industry and Innovation, Networked Intelligent Systems, and Power and Energy. INESC TEC hosts over 750 integrated researchers (about 350 PhDs). INESC TEC will participate in this project with the Centre of Telecommunications and Multimedia, which consists of 100+ researchers addressing scientific and technological challenges related with the fields of telecommunications and multimedia, with 30 PhDs in total, bringing to the project a team with a track record in antenna and antenna array design, including low cost reflect-arrays, circuit modelling of semiconductor devices, reconfigurable electronics using FPGAs and design and characterization of electronic circuits, specifically oxide-based memristors and transistors and their dynamic behaviour modelling.

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), known shortly as the University of Athens and registered as Ethniko kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon in EU’s CORDIS, was founded in 1837 and is the oldest and top-ranked University in Greece located in the capital city Athens. The Department of Informatics and Telecommunications (DIT) was founded in 1989 and is part of NKUA’s School of Science. The Intelligent Wireless Systems and Information Processing Algorithms (NOESYS) Research Group is a pioneering DIT group, which is headed by Associate Professor George C. Alexandropoulos who serves as NKUA’s PI and technical manager for TERRAMETA. NOESYS comprises 2 Postdocs, 4 PhD students, 3 software developers, and numerous MSc/BSc thesis students, and closely collaborates with the Software Centric & Autonomic Networking (SCAN) lab (http://scan.di.uoa.gr), which is another DIT’s research lab consisting of around 25 researchers and software engineers. NOESYS and SCAN members possess high quality technical and management skills in the areas of 5G NR (e.g., massive MIMO, beamforming, and millimeter wave), full duplex radios, RISs and metasurface-based antennas, IoT, signal processing and machine learning for wireless communications, SDN, and NFV, as well as self-organizing, reconfigurable, and cognitive radio systems. NOESYS and SCAN have around 15 industrial and public-sector contracts in the areas of big data analytics, 5G networking, integrated access and backhaul, holographic MIMO, ADN, SDN, NFV, and digital governance. The NOESYS research group has received various prestigious awards, including the EURASIP Best Paper Award of the Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2021, the IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications 2021, a Best Paper Award from the IEEE GLOBECOM 2021, and the IEEE ComSoc Fred Ellersick Prize 2023.

University of Oulu started the world’s first major 8-year 6G program (6G Flagship) in 2018. The program includes about 400 researchers at the University of Oulu covering the four major research strategic research areas: wireless connectivity, devices and circuit technology, distributed computing, and services and applications. Twelve white papers published by 6G Flagship have gained huge attention with about 1M downloads and 6G Summit initiated by 6G Flagship has been merged with EuCNC to form EuCNC&6GSummit for 2021 – 2024. Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC) of the University of Oulu has participated all main EC funded mobile communications pre-standards projects including FRAMES, WINNER, METIS and Hexa-X as well as numerous other ICT projects funded by the EC. Capacity of CWC to participate in projects is in very good shape: almost 80 doctoral students, 50 doctoral level researchers and 20 professors at different career stages covering all critical aspects from HW implementations to higher OSI layers. The 5G Test Network with real commercial network products as well as PoC research equipment enables real-life testing of the developed concepts and applications. 5G Test Network is being developed towards 6G era at the moment.

Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) is a private, non-profit organization of public interest, and State Associate Laboratory since 2001. It is a partnership of six universities, one polytechnic institute and two companies involved in research and development in the field of Telecommunications. IT is organized around three main sites: Aveiro, Coimbra and Lisbon with delegations in Covilhã, Leiria, Lisbon and Porto. IT scientific expertise and main research and education activities span five thematic lines, which aggregate 16 Research Clusters: Wireless Technologies, Optics & Photonics, Information & Data Sciences, Networks & Services, and Basic Sciences & Enabling Technologies. IT fosters higher education and advanced training, by hosting and tutoring graduate and postgraduate students. The institute is dedicated to building a highly skilled and qualified workforce, having tutored over 3,000 MSc students and close to 600 PhD students. By joining geographically scattered expertise and creating a common culture of excellence, IT managed to create a critical mass, enabling to level with the most influential players in telecommunications, to compete for external funding and get international visibility and recognition. IT scientific output rounds up to an accumulated total of 270+ books, 5800+ journal papers, 10,000+ conference papers, 220+ patents and 94,000+ citations in the Clarivate Web of Science.

Intracom Telecom is a global telecommunication systems & solutions vendor operating for over 40 years in the market. The company innovates in the areas of small-cell backhaul, wireless transmission and broadband wireless access and has successfully deployed its industry leading PtP and PtMP packet radio systems worldwide. Intracom Telecom offers a competitive portfolio of telco software solutions and a complete range of ICT services, focusing on big data analytics, converged networking and cloud computing for operators and private, public and government clouds. Intracom Telecom invests annually a significant percentage of its revenue in R&D programs developing cutting-edge products and competitive solutions on an international level. It has a strong participation in the European Union’s (EU) flagship initiative for 5G and a significant involvement in the EU Horizon 2020 research framework. Intracom Telecom maintains strategic R&D partnerships with major technology vendors and leading academic institutions globally. The company’s research activities include the areas of 5G, next generation/future internet, NFV/SDN, IoT interoperability, energy management and smart grids. Intracom Telecom has a strong presence in the development of 5G and beyond networks in Europe, with participation in projects of all phases: SPEED-5G, CHARISMA, VirtuWind, BlueSpace, 5G-VINNI, 5G-VICTORI, 5G-HEART, 5G-SOLUTIONS, TERRANOVA, ARIADNE, TERAWAY, 5GZORRO, MARSAL, SPRINTER.

CEA or (CEA-Leti), the Laboratory for Electronics & Information Technology is operated by “Direction de la Recherche Technologique”, (DRT), at CEA, the French Atomic and Alternative Energies Commission. It mainly aims at helping companies to increase their competitiveness through technological innovation and the transfer of its technical know-how to industry. Major Player in the MINATEC Micro-Nano technologies innovation center, CEA-Leti benefits from 8000 m2 SOA clean rooms, with equipment worth some 160 million euros. It is currently employing some 1600 people, among whom 1100 CEA employees and co-workers of various status including 100 people from industrial partners, working in the CEA-Leti premises within the framework of bilateral collaborations. Overall, research contracts with industry are worth 75% of CEA-Leti annual income. It has a very important patents portfolio, and filed last year more than 200 patents and 700 publications. The laboratory is structured into six departments, with a specific department operating 24-7 the technological facilities of the silicon technology platform, and five program-oriented departments covering the fields of microelectronics, Microsystems, Optronics, system design and telecommunications, and technologies for bio and health. In the field of information theory, the System Department has a Wireless Transmission Division, dedicated to cellular (4G, 5G) communications, as well as to Internet of Things systems. A large laboratory is dedicated to electromagnetism (antennas and propagation), another one to integrated circuit design and characterization.

UniLu conducts internationally competitive research in information and communication technology, and it has a dedicated team of over 70 researchers and scientists working on the formulation, design, and analysis of 6G communication networks. The research areas at UniLu related to this proposal are co-located & cell-free massive MIMO architectures, smart-radio with RISs, ML & AI, metasurface and antenna design, and hybrid analog/digital beamforming design. In addition, the research at UniLu is often in collaboration with governmental, industrial and international partners. UniLu is active in several national projects funded by National Research Fund (FNR) and local industries within Luxembourg, and international research projects funded by the EU HE programme, H2020 programme and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Dell Technologies (Dell EMC Research) is one of the world’s largest technology companies, manufacturing a wide range of IT equipment from enterprise servers, switches, and storage to consumer desktops and laptops. Dell also provides a wide range of software systems and platforms to enable an extensive number of services and features to customers and partners. Dell’s Chief Technology Office (CTO) research centre in Ireland is part of Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), and is experienced in research and development for THz wireless systems for enterprise environments through collaboration on a previous Horizon 2020 THz project – TERAPOD .

The Institute for Communications Technology at Technische Universität Braunschweig has specific expertise on channel measurements and modelling as well as overall system design for THz communication systems via link and system level simulation. TUBS contributes to fundamental research and hardware demonstration for more than 10 years using their in-house developed Simulator for Mobile Networks (SiMoNe) and their 300 GHz channel sounder. Furthermore, TUBS extends their expertise by participating in international as well as national projects and contributions to standardization and regularization in this frequency range.

Founded in 2006 ACST GmbH was the first European supplier of Schottky diodes for mm and sub-mm applications. Being a spin-off company of the Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUD), ACST succeeded to over twenty years of technology standards, R&D activity and accumulated experience at TUD in the field of THz technology. This has been used by ACST to build a solid background in fabrication technology of THz Schottky components but also in RF modules and THz systems. Over the past decade ACST has undertaken over twenty R&D projects supported by ESA, EC (FP7 & H2020), the German Government (BMBF, BMWI) and also leading industrial partners. Accumulated experience and know-how have successfully been implemented into ACST development strategy and supported ACST to become a leading European supplier of Schottky-based THz products targeting at ultimate performance at mm/submm-waves. With a strong technology background ACST has been involved in various space projects and currently provides products and technology support for space missions in Europe, USA and Asia.

NOVA.ID.FCT (Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento da FCT) is a private non- profit research organisation devoted to R&D&I activities, recognised by the Portuguese System for Science and Technology of FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia). NOVA.ID.FCT based at FCT NOVA acts as the legal institution of 16 research units (9 as Excellent), carrying out research work and managing R&D&I projects. NOVA.ID.FCT has experience in managing FP7 projects and has already been awarded with 40 projects in H2020 adding up to 17€ million. FCT NOVA has achieved extraordinary national relevance on several programmes, most of them pioneers. From 2016 to 2020, FCT NOVA published 4 709 papers indexed in ISI Web of Science. FCT NOVA has a portfolio of around 50 patent families.

The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. UH is one of only 20 universities awarded Enterprise Zone status and was ranked 4th globally for research culture. The Communications and Intelligent Systems (CIS) research group at UH is comprised of 18 academic staff, 8 research staff, and 25 research students. The expertise of CIS includes antenna technologies, RF systems and circuits, signal processing, computer vision, cognitive networks, wireless and mobile communications, virtual reality and robotics, power and control, and machine learning and AI. CIS researchers collaborate with UK and international academia and industries through R&D projects funded by EU, ESA, EPSRC, and Innovate UK.

BT is one of the world’s leading communications service provider companies, serving the needs of customers in the UK and in more than 170 countries worldwide. BT’s main activities are related to the provision of fixed-line services, broadband, mobile and TV products as well as networked IT services. In the UK, BT is the leading communications services provider, selling products and services to consumers, small and medium sized enterprises and the public sector. Additionally, BT sells wholesale products and services to communications providers in the UK and around the world. Globally, BT supplies managed networked IT services to multinational corporations, domestic businesses and national and local government organisations.