Huawei will establish its European R&D headquarters in Leuven, the company announced during the European Business Summit in Brussels. The European Research Institute (ERI) will manage Huawei’s 18 R&D facilities already present in eight European countries.
The centres are organised around a specific theme or research field, in cooperation with European companies, universities and research institutes. Huawei has over 1,200 people working on R&D in Europe and liaisons with 200 companies and 120 academic institutions. Research focuses mainly on the development of Industry 4.0 where everything is connected, and the development of a 5G standard for Internet-of-Things connectivity.
The ERI will be led by Zhou Hong, in charge since last year for R&D, standardisation and technical cooperation in Europe. Walter Weigel, the former director general of ETSI, will be vice-president.
