The COREnext project aims to build a computing architecture and digital components for sustainable and trustworthy B5G and 6G processing. This architecture must support an open, multi-vendor and multi-tenant disaggregated RAN by employing virtualization technology. A step forward in digital component design must be made to address the compute throughput and energy-efficiency requirements. This is addressed by the development of powerful and efficient heterogeneous accelerators, purpose-built for RAN computation and signal processing, as well as ultra-high-speed and low-power interconnects to support disaggregation of compute resources. A cornerstone of the project is trustworthiness. The pervasiveness of B5G and 6G use cases requires deeply embedded hardware trust anchors to fulfil the vision of secure disaggregated compute systems. To realize these goals, the project brings together major telecommunications and microelectronics players as well as academic research partners. A strategic roadmap will offer a transparent path towards future exploitation of the generated research results, fostering a continuing European strategy for the emergence of European digital capabilities in this communication-computing domain.

For the EU health industry to be competitive and to sustainably deliver internationally leading care quality, it is important that EU regulation, guidelines and standards enable effective and interoperable digital health innovation and promote a vibrant entrepreneurial EU sector. Safety and competitiveness are not mutually exclusive. To deliver on them requires a pace and intensity of technological innovation that is matched by intensive regulatory innovation. Smarter, adaptive, dynamic, and evidence-based regulatory approaches are needed, based on real world experience in representative use scenarios. CYMEDSEC has been designed with an optimum consortium of regulatory, cybersecurity, technology, evaluation, and clinical EU experts to address exactly this challenge. It provides close feedback loops between new technological paradigms and recommendation of regulatory approaches, fostering regulatory science fresh thinking. It will deliver novel security-by-design solutions for the oversight of ‘Internet of Medical Things’ (IoMT) devices, including connected in vitro diagnostics. IoMT ‘fleet’ cybersecurity oversight systems will be developed. Use cases explored include remote patient monitoring and critical care scenarios, for which the project will develop novel and highly secure gateway middleware. Our technological and methodological advancement will go hand-in-hand with detailed review of regulations and guidelines, the formal creation of a new IoMT cybersecurity standard, and evidence collection from representative case studies. These objectives are holistically interlinked, with learnings form each work area feeding into development and proposals in other areas. Key to this is the in-project development of a cybersecurity benefit-risk toolbox, which will further develop the state of the art, using qualitative and quantitively approaches, and will make these available as easily usable and findable Open-Source resources for manufactures and regulatory bodies.

6G-SENSES proposes the integration of novel 6G RAN technologies such as Cell-Free (CF) Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) and Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS) to support the 6G vision that is sustained by the current (and future) architectural framework based on 3GPP and O-RAN. The project considers a multi-technology RAN ecosystem with technologies that are able to offer sensing functionalities. These technologies are Sub-6, Wi-Fi, millimeter wave and 5G NR, which will coexist in a JCAS framework whose goal is to retrieve as much information as possible from the surrounding environment to improve energy efficiency, reduce power consumption and favour communication at high data rates. Additionally, some of these technologies will be amenable to be integrated in the first implementation of a fully distributed CF-mMIMO scheme using mmWave and Sub-6 technologies. WIth the aim to enhance availability and coverage and to improve sensing performance, will leverage Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) making use of the distributed nature of the access points and availability of multiple antennas. An optimization of distributed signal processing and resource allocation schemes tailored for RIS-assisted CF network architecture is proposed. This framework will make use of new PHY technologies to increase the cooperation among access points and their inherent capabilities to improve the precision/accuracy of the sensing capabilities. Sensing information stemming from these technologies will be pushed to the O-RAN framweork for optimization purposes using the Radio Intelligent Controllers (RICs). A total of three Proof-of-Concept demonstrations will be showcased, which encompass the proposed objectives of the project in a single infrastructure.

To deliver on our European 6G vision for the 2030s, and to tackle opportunities and challenges of increasing magnitude, e.g., sustainability, trustworthiness, green deal efficiency, digital inclusion, there is need for a flagship project, towards the elaboration of a holistic 6G network platform and system. To fill this need, Hexa-X-II is proposed with the ambition of being this flagship project, and of inspiring the world for digital transformation through novel 6G services. Hexa-X-II will work, beyond enabler-oriented research, to optimized systemization, early validation, and proof-of-concept; work will progress from the 6G key enablers that connect the human, physical, and digital worlds, as explored in Hexa-X, to advanced technology readiness levels, including key aspects of modules / protocols / interfaces / data. Hexa-X II includes: (a) the provision of advanced / refined use cases, services, and requirements, ensuring value for society; (b) the delivery of the 6G platform blueprint, which will encompass enhanced connectivity for 6G services, mechanisms realizing the “networks beyond communications” vision (sensing, computing, trustworthy AI), efficient network management schemes; (c) the realization of extended validation at system and component level; (d) actions for global impact, while assuring strategic autonomy in critical areas for the EU. Europe is starting from the pole position with 6G research and is leading wireless network technologies today. Now is the time to leverage our joint research ambition with a flagship project that will lead the R&D effort towards end-to-end systemization and validation. The Hexa-X-II flagship is a unique effort and a holistic vision, of a 6G system of integrated technology enablers, which accomplish “beyond the sum of the parts”, and of a “network beyond communications” platform for disruptive economic / environmental / societal impact; these are vital for establishing the European 6G technology leadership!

The INSTINCT project is going to enable globally sustainable, interactive, immersive, and intelligent ‘beyond communications’ 6G connectivity by developing three complementary but critical breakthrough technology pillars: ·sensing-assisted communication technologies, thus allowing localization, tracking, mapping, monitoring, imaging, incident detection and semantics become integral parts of connectivity services (Pillar 1), ·intelligent surfaces, holographic radios and cell free systems, which offer wavefront engineering functionalities and tuneability of the wireless environment and can act as reconfigurable and intelligent sensors (Pillar 2), and ·Machine Learning (ML) techniques-based co-design of Sensing and Communications INSTINCT proposes a revolutionary path to 6G and has the ambition to specify the relevant KPIs/KVIs, formulate suitable models, devise the theoretical framework, invent new technologies, evaluate via simulations and validate by means of 2 HW and 1 SW demonstrators, a networked intelligence concept able to meet the unprecedented 6G requirements. To realise this vision, INSTINCT consortium brings together all relevant stakeholders from across Europe, with an impressive record of interdisciplinary research excellence, technology innovation, standardisation and transfer, and implementation expertise.