University of Surrey wins £35m for 5G centre
By mattcollison | Monday, October 08, 2012, 14:37
THE University of Surrey has won a £35 million cash boost to create a research hub for super-fast 5G mobile communication technologies.
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The new 5G research hub will be part of the University's Centre for Communication Systems Research.
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The University has been awarded £11.6 million in Government money.
It is one of a few major UK universities benefiting from government money, announced by chancellor George Osborne at today's Tory conference.
The funding bid, made by the University to the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund, for a £11.6 million government grant is underpinned by an extra £24 million from leading mobile operators.
The money will be used to develop a specialised 5G Innovation Centre at the University's Centre for Communication Systems Research (CCSR) in the Stag Hill campus, Guildford, with the aim of developing broadband mobile internet technologies.
Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, president and vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, said: "The announcement of this funding success is a major coup for the University, its industry partners and the economy."
"The new 5G Centre of the calibre set out in our bid will enable the UK to lead this rapidly expanding segment of the global digital economy.
"Locally, it will bring yet more momentum to the already significant growth in the clusters of established and new high-tech businesses on our Surrey Research Park.
"Finally, and very significantly for us, it consolidates the leading position of our own Centre for Communication Systems Research in Europe and paves the way for the further development of our long-term strategic partnerships with major global telecommunications organisations and significant inward investment into both Surrey and the UK."
Professor Rahim Tafazolli, CCSR group leader, said: 'The growth in the number of new applications running on the networks is accelerating, as ever more mobile devices become the preferred route for internet access.
"Such unprecedented data traffic growth requires the urgent introduction of new 5G advanced technologies that maximise the use of the limited available radio spectrum and provide for greener technologies and solutions."
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