A national experimentation platform.
Where academic excellence meets real-world need.
Where next gen network research becomes reality.
Where all are welcome.
Where future communications systems are already being built.
We experiment.
JOINER is the UK’s only open international experimentation platform for future networks research, development and innovation.
It is neutral, heterogeneous and built to operate at the scale real-world deployment demands, far beyond what is possible in a single lab.
The platform provides hybrid cloud, AI-ready edge computing, spectrum experimentation, NTN emulators and secure networking capabilities. Running 24/7, across nodes from Belfast to Bristol to Glasgow, it provides the real-world conditions needed for world-leading research.
An experimentation platform
for future connectivity.
Collaboration is in our DNA.
We collaborate.
JOINER exists to serve industry, academia and government on shared infrastructure.
The platform supports collaboration between universities, start-ups, SMEs, operators, vendors, policymakers and public sector organisations, enabling organisations across the full value chain to test and validate technologies in the same environment.
Vendor-neutral and open by design, JOINER reduces barriers to experimentation and helps organisations avoid building isolated infrastructure from scratch.
The power of JOINER lies in the connections made between its users, enabling them to push boundaries together and achieve more than they could alone.
We innovate.
JOINER accelerates the transition from research to commercial deployment, closing the structural gap in the UK’s innovation pipeline by reducing infrastructure costs to industry.
We are closing the gap between the lab and the market by validating technologies, generating standards evidence, testing interoperability across complex systems, reducing deployment risk, translating research into operational capability resulting in increased investment.
Combining cutting edge capabilities.
Our Partners.
Our project is led by the University of Bristol, alongside three core partners who represent each of the Future Telecoms Hubs — CHEDDAR, HASC, and TITAN. Along with JOINER, these three projects create the Federated Telecoms Hubs.
JOINER connects the research labs of each of these partners, and extends to include seven other centres of excellence — or nodes. Drawing together research leaders and test networks from across the UK, each bringing their own unique specialisations and capabilities.
JOINERmobile
This terminal-in-a-van is a mobile node, packed with connectivity kit, including a mobile satellite link with Starlink roaming, 5G Open RAN access, and Wi-Fi 7.
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton researches and develops novel techniques to process and transmit optical signals and discovered the erbium doped fibre amplifier in the 1980s, which eliminates fibre loss as an obstacle to signal transmission. Today, Southampton introduces new technologies that unleash the potential of optics and photonics and create an internet infrastructure that is fit for the future.
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds has a longstanding international reputation for: communications, signal processing, control systems and instrumentation. Over the last decade, there has been significant expansion into optical communications and networking, engaging with all major telecommunication companies.
University of Glasgow
A world top 100 university, the University of Glasgow is a major research-led university and, alongside the Scotland 5G Centre, is Scotland’s contributor to the JOINER project.
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s Networked Systems Group has long studied challenges and opportunities in disaggregated, software-centric 5G and beyond mobile networks, including Open RAN. Recently, their focus has expanded to AI’s impact on RAN, edge AI infrastructure, and applications, with strong ties to private 5G.
Digital Catapult
Digital Catapult is a deep tech innovation organisation helping businesses grow by applying deep tech and partnering with government, industry and academia to find solutions that benefit the UK.
Trinity College Dublin
CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks headquartered at Trinity College Dublin is advancing the capabilities of OpenIreland, Ireland’s national open networking testbed for 6G and beyond. CONNECT’s focus lies in seamlessly integrating optical and wireless network technologies to enable end-to-end, low-latency, resilient and high-throughput connectivity.
As part of this effort, OpenIreland provides a cutting-edge experimentation platform for the development and validation of AI-driven, intelligent network control frameworks, leveraging digital twin models to simulate, predict, and optimise network behaviour in real time. The platform also supports research into joint sensing and communication capabilities, enabling the fusion of environmental awareness with high-speed connectivity, a critical enabler for next-generation applications such as autonomous systems, smart cities, and immersive XR.
Through this work, CONNECT reinforces Ireland’s leadership in developing the resilient and intelligent communications infrastructure of the future.
Queen’s University Belfast
The Centre for Wireless Innovation (CWI), Queen’s University Belfast, is the UK’s largest research, development and exploitation base in physical layer wireless, and one of the strongest in Europe.
University College London
Consistently ranked as a top ten university in the world, UCL is number two in the UK for research power and is a modern, outward-looking institution, committed to engaging with the major issues of our times.
Cranfield University
Cranfield University is a QS top 30 university in aerospace and mechanical engineering, focused on advancing research in how wireless technologies can improve transportation, autonomy, and defence.
Bangor University
The DSP Centre in Bangor University was established in September 2019 to develop cutting-edge digital signal processing solutions for 5G and beyond. The Centre has dedicated teams conducting activities in research, commercialisation and skill training.
In addition, the Centre also has three unique research labs equipped with state-of-the-art equipment worth of £5.5, and a strong industrial partner base consisting of 35 partners world-wide covering the whole ICT value chain. The Centre is conducting pioneering telecommunication research at device, transmission system and network architecture levels, with particular attention focussed on physical-layer network security, joint communications and sensing, as well as seamlessly converged fibre-mmW-FSO networks.
University of Oxford
Heading up the HASC Future Telecoms Hub, the team at the University of Oxford is focused on combining wired and wireless internet technologies to achieve end-to-end connectivity. For our experimentation platform, this will involve modelling the capabilities of different wired and wireless techniques, investigating efficient interfaces and physical architectures, and analysing new fibres and their capabilities.
Imperial College London
Imperial College London leads the CHEDDAR Future Telecoms Hub and brings academic excellence and world-leading research in TK to our project. The Imperial team is investigating emerging computation and critical infrastructures with a cross-sector focus on end-users. This will involve building a unified research ecosystem focused on breaking new ground in the field of 6G and interconnected intelligence.
Cambridge University
The team at Cambridge leads the TITAN Future Telecoms Hub, which aims to develop a seamless, open, integrated Network of Networks that will serve as a foundational blueprint for the evolution of 6G networks and beyond — a core component of our experimentationplatform.
University of Bristol
Our lead partner, the University of Bristol has a well-earned reputation for telecoms innovation, operating at the cutting edge of global research in autonomous networks, data science, machine learning and AI, mobile edge computing, and convergence. As well as contributing its own expertise in these fields, the team will draw together the offerings of the three Future Telecoms Hubs with seven other research labs and test networks across the UK to bring our vision to fruition.