Bernard Barani graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne in 1982. He then served as communications engineer in industry on military infrared systems and then with the European Space Agency on advanced satcom programmes. In 1994, he joined the European Commission Directorate General "Information Society", and was responsible for implementation of research and policy issues of wireless communication, Internet, audio visual systems, Software and Services. He has been Deputy head of the unit dealing with research and policy in the field of RFID, Internet of Things and networked enterprise systems. He is currently Deputy head of the unit in charge of research and innovation on Network Technologies in the CONNECT Directorate General of the European Commission. His responsibilities cover the definition of the research strategy in optical and wireless communication in the context of "5G", SDN/NFV based networks and innovative Internet architectures.