Innovation Management in 6G Research: The Case of Hexa-X Project

Very often in the past, innovations from research communities have been disconnected from industry adoption, leading to a lack of exploitation of research projects. To overcome this issue, in the view of future 6G systems, the Hexa-X project is putting in place an innovation management (IM) process, aiming to facilitate and promote innovation opportunities based on project outcomes and ensure that all the ideas emerging from the project are captured and tracked, not “lost.” The focus of IM is on supporting the project to promptly identify innovations and engage with emerging innovation needs in the sector, for identifying gaps and potentials with strategic value. This article presents the IM approach in Hexa-X and selected innovations (some of which also awarded by the EC Innovation Radar), with particular emphasis on the technical aspects of these findings coupled with their identified strategic value for future 6G market exploitation.