Defence firm Thales, NXP, Philips, Altum RF, and Delft, Twente and Eindhoven universities have signed up for a new government-backed project to develop the next generation of radio frequency technologies.

The government agreed earlier to invest almost €102 million into the Polaris project, which has been initiated by the ministry of defence and will run for at least eight years.

The participating companies have also put €64 million into the project which aims to significantly improve existing RF technology.

Thales technical director Simon van den Berg told the Financieele Dagblad the companies and universities have been working on the preparations for almost three years.

“Despite the different fields of expertise, some great ideas have already emerged that we will explore together,” he said. “So, we’re not starting from scratch in January, we already have some directions in mind.”

The technology could, for example, enable Thales to build radar that allow users to detect aircraft from much greater distances, and monitor many more areas than is currently possible.

Philips, meanwhile, hopes that its new generation of MRI scanners will become much more compact, faster, and deliver more accurate images, the FD reported.

The partners believe that the initiative will eventually create thousands of new jobs and could provide a boost to the Dutch economy of more than €500 million during the duration of the project.