Industry–academia spectrum dialogues: an SPF event with the FTH

Name: Industry–academia spectrum dialogues: an SPF event with the FTH
Start: 2026-11-18T12:00:00
End: 2026-11-18T17:00:00
Location: Imperial College London

12pm – 5pm 18 November 2026 London Imperial College London

A UK SPF conference connecting industry problem-owners with the academic and research community shaping spectrum sharing and access technologies.

Background

This event is built around removing barriers for industry and academia partnerships, whereby industry brings the problems it is facing, and the conference creates a structured space to test where those problems intersect with the capability, insight, and emerging work of the academic and research community. In turn, academics use the platform to present and shape their research against real industry and regulatory need.

The format is designed as a structured two-way dialogue. Industry frames the operational and regulatory pain points, while researchers respond with what already exists, what is close to application, and what remains unresolved. In the aftermath, both sides work together to identify where UK research effort could be directed most usefully.

While the UK spectrum research sits at an inflection point, this event is intended to help raise the bar and the visibility of UK academic spectrum research, showcasing its unique selling proposition: a distributed, discovery-science-capable infrastructure of a kind few other countries can point to. This network also has a direct practical value beyond pure product creation, in that it can inform Ofcom with early insight into new approaches to spectrum management.

What will you get

The value of UK spectrum research is not fully realised until it is translated into a form that has genuine impact on industry practice and on regulatory decision-making. That translation step is the persistent gap this event is designed to help close. The event will aim to:

Give industry a structured route to put live spectrum-sharing and access problems directly to the research community, and leave with a clearer sense of where near-term research capability exists
Give researchers a platform to present and pressure-test their work against real industry and regulatory need
Raise the international visibility and profile of UK spectrum research, addressing the current gap in UK submissions to international spectrum research fora
Strengthen the translation pathway from research into commercial solutions and into Ofcom's policy and regulatory work, building on the improving Ofcom–ComReg relationship

Agenda

Time	Session
12:00 – 12:30	Registration and networking
12:30 – 12:45	Welcome and framing: setting out the dialogue format: industry problems, academic research, common ground
12:45 – 13:25	Industry problem statements: how can industry suggest a path for academic research without pre-empting innovation?
13:25 – 14:00	UK research hubs: showing the work: what do JOINER / HASC / CHEDDAR / TITAN researchers think about when developing their research?
14:00 – 14:40	Break and posters
14:40 – 15:20	The translation gap from research to policy impact: what are the benefits of research to regulation and vice-versa?
15:20 – 15:50	Finding common ground for industry-academia engagement: hubs directors explain why we are doing what we are doing considering the international landscape
15:50 – 16:00	Closing and next steps: summary of agreed follow-up actions and route into UKRI/UKTIN/EPSRC engagement
16:00 – 17:00	Networking

Who should attend

Industry: operators, vendors, and end-user sectors with live spectrum-sharing or access challenges (not restricted to current UK SPF members)
Academia and research: JOINER node leads (Bristol, Belfast, Oxford, UCL, Cambridge), HASC, and other UK spectrum research groups; international academic links where relevant
Funders and research bodies: UKRI, UKTIN, EPSRC
Regulators: Ofcom; ComReg (Ireland) as an invited counterpart, reflecting the existing working relationship
UK SPF Steering Board and Cluster Chairs, to connect outcomes back into Cluster 3 (shared access/licensing) and Cluster 4 (WRC-27) work

Sophie Greaves

Associate Director, Digital Infrastructure, techUK

Tales Gaspar

Programme Manager, UK SPF and Satellite, techUK

Tales Gaspar

Programme Manager, UK SPF and Satellite, techUK

Tales has a background in law and economics, with previous experience in the regulation of new technologies and infrastructure.

In the UK and Europe, he offered consultancy on intellectual property rights of cellular and IoT technologies and on the regulatory procedures at the ITU as a Global Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI).

Tales has an LL.M in Law and Business by the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and an MSc in Regulation at the London School of Economics, with a specialization in Government and Law.

Email:: [email protected]
Phone:: +44 (0) 0207 331 2000
Website:: www.techUK.org
LinkedIn:: www.linkedin.com/in/talesngaspar

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Sophie Greaves

Associate Director, Digital Infrastructure, techUK

Sophie Greaves is Associate Director for Digital Infrastructure at techUK, overseeing the Telecoms Programme, the Data Centres Programme, and the UK Spectrum Policy Forum.

Sophie leads our work across telecoms networks, security and resilience, supply chain diversification, advanced communications technologies, spectrum policy, and data centres - bringing these areas together into a dedicated Digital Infrastructure unit. She was previously Head of Telecoms and Spectrum Policy.

Prior to joining techUK, Sophie completed a masters in Film Studies at University College London; her dissertation examined US telecoms policy relating to net neutrality and content distribution.