Our organisation
CELTIC-NEXT is a Eureka Cluster focusing on ICT and telecommunication.
CELTIC-NEXT has been active since 2018. It follows the two predecessor Clusters, Celtic-Initiative (2004-2010) and Celtic-Plus (2011-2018).
The organisation comprises the Core Group, the Public Authorities, the Management Team, and the CELTIC Office. The heart of the technological work is the achievements of CELTIC-NEXT Projects.
CELTIC-NEXT main task is to stimulate successful industry-driven collaborative European research projects. Through CELTIC projects, the work happens and where the return on investment is made. Typically we have between 20 and 30 projects with a total budget of 100 to 300 million euros running in parallel.
The CELTIC Core Group consists of currently 19 members from 10 countries. Members of the Core Group are mainly from the European telecoms industry. The Core Group is responsible for the general policy of CELTIC-NEXT and its research activities. Core Group members drive many project proposals.
The CELTIC-NEXT Management Team consists of the Core Group chair and the Celtic Office Director.
The Team is responsible for general CELTIC-NEXT management issues.
The Celtic Office is responsible for the day-to-day management of the CELTIC-NEXT programme. It organises the calls for project proposals, the project evaluation, the labelling and the project reviews. It also provides the support needed to projects, proposers and interested communities and organises regular CELTIC-NEXT events and Proposers Days.
The Public Authorities are the national contact points for the application of national project funding. Each EUREKA country has, at least, one representative who acts as the official Public Authority. In many cases, a dedicated responsible has been nominated for the CELTIC-NEXT cluster. Public Authorities are involved in CELTIC through common meetings with the CELTIC Core Group in the selection process of received proposals.
The Public Authorities of the different countries are responsible for the public funding part of CELTIC-NEXT projects. Representatives of the Public Authorities help the proposers and projects to ensure public funding in the different countries.
The Group of Experts (GoE) is responsible for the evaluation of project proposals and for taking part in Celtic project reviews. The GoE will comprise several sub-groups accountable for a particular technical area. Core group members will nominate members of the GoE, and an expert will chair each GoE.
The CELTIC Core Group may install from time to time and for a limited duration a CELTIC Ad-Hoc Committee, which has delegated responsibilities and which shall execute specific tasks and responsibilities. As an example, CELTIC Ad-Hoc Committees may be created to assist the Core Group or the Group of Experts with monitoring the progress of the projects.
For CELTIC-NEXT, the National Public Authorities are organised in the ‘Celtic Public Authorities Committee’ (CELTAC). Public Authorities are involved in CELTAC through common meetings with the CELTIC Core Group in the selection process of received proposals.
Our main executive body
The main executive body of CELTIC-NEXT is formed by the Management Team and the Core Group which together take all the essential decisions of strategy and labeling.
Acting as the board of CELTIC-NEXT, it is formed by the founding members: ADVA, British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Ericsson, Eurescom, Orange-Labs, INDRA, ITATEL, NETAS, Nokia, RAD Data Communications, Telefónica, Telenor, Thales, Turkcell, Türk Telekom, IMEC. In the last years, new companies have joined as SES and Cellnex.
The CELTIC-NEXT Industry Core Group ensure the continuous cross-fertilisation of ideas. In parallel, the telecommunications industry shall exploit the full power of cross sectors technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, to define and provide customised and smart solutions for the different economic sectors and the whole society.
Acting as the Executive Committee, the management team of this Core Group is led by a chair, David Kennedy from Eurescom and Xavier Priem, Director of the CELTIC-NEXT Office.
The management team are involved in CELTIC through joint strategy meetings with the CELTIC Office in the selection process of received proposals and during the life of the project’s development.
The CELTIC Core Group and the Management Team are mainly responsible for the following:
- Programme strategy and coherence;
- Representation of the Programme in front of Public Authorities;
- Interface and influence to the PAs for all issues related to the CELTIC-NEXT Programme;
- Decision on tasks and guidelines for the CELTIC-NEXT Support Group (e.g. for Project selection and CELTIC-NEXT participant search);
- Definition and updating of guidelines for the structure and organisation of the Programme; the admission and control of rules for Programme and Project management;
- Selection of Projects, assisted by the CELTIC-NEXT Support Group’s recommendations;
- Execution and overall management of the Programme;
- Decision on Projects in individual cases;
- Approval of the budget for the CELTIC-NEXT organisation
- Financial audit of the CELTIC-NEXT organisation
