On February 24th, the CELTIC-NEXT Community gathered once again for the highly anticipated CELTIC Proposers Day in Barcelona, kindly hosted by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

The day commenced with a warm welcome from Ian Blane, the Dean of the School of Engineering at UAB, along with a welcome from Mrs. Juana Sanchez of CDTI, Spain, and Mr. Xavier Priem, CELTIC Director, who highlighted key aspects of international collaboration within the CELTIC-NEXT Eureka Cluster.

Keynote and Public Funding Bodies Session:

The opening remarks were followed by an inspiring keynote, kindly presented by Mr. Mustafa Karakoc, Regional Network Operations Director and Head of the 6GEN.LAB and Next Generation R&D teams at Turkcell. He shared valuable insights from an operator’s perspective on adapting autonomous networks with 6G-enabling technologies.

Mr. Karakoc’s vision for 6G revolves around AI-native network design, which aims to provide high-performance, energy-efficient computing platforms to support future services for businesses and consumers. Central to his presentation was the GSMA’s Reliable AI Maturity Roadmap, showcasing early adopters of technologies such as graph neural networks, reinforcement learning, distributed learning, and generative AI.

The following session featured insights from public funding bodies supporting CELTIC participants representing Spain, Portugal, Finland, Türkiye, France, and Chile. This discussion illuminated the funding landscape and set the stage for potential collaborations and groundbreaking CELTIC projects, which would be explored further in the afternoon’s pitching session.

Business Impact Session:

Following the funding discussions, we featured a lineup of esteemed speakers who presented their groundbreaking work on timely CELTIC projects:

› fiQare: Prof. Enrique Alba from the University of Malaga (ES) and Manuel Gimenez Medina, Chief Innovation Officer/R&D at Ayesa (ES), highlighted their innovative approaches to enhancing code quality through artificial intelligence, contributing to the development of a reliable hyperconnected world.

› CISSAN: Alberto Doval Iglesias, CTO of Councilbox (ES), provided valuable insights into the CISSAN project, which targets pressing cybersecurity issues within Internet of Things (IoT) networks.

› UNICRINF & IMMINENCE: Victor Pascual Ávila, Head of Security and Standards at Nokia Spain, discussed the UNICRINF emergency platform and the successful implementation of the IMMINENCE project.

› F4iTECH: Ismail Uzun from Inosens shared the latest progress on the F4iTECH project, which focuses on federated learning solutions aimed at building trust in the Industry 4.0 environment.

The Business Impact session was skillfully moderated by our GOE Member, David Castells-Rufas. During this interactive exchange, panelists and attendees were encouraged to engage in thoughtful discussions on several compelling questions.

One key topic centered on the Draghi Report’s insights regarding Europe’s regulatory challenges, prompting questions about how regulations can also foster innovations such as Digital Video broadcasting (DVB) and Universal Serial Board-Connector (USB-C)). Panelists shared their perspectives on this dynamic in their respective fields.

Another area of discussion was the impact of the growth of IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, and whether the resulting traffic levels will continue to lag significantly behind those of video on demand in the near future.

Additionally, the conversation explored the anticipated role of AI in addressing cybercrime, with panelists and attendees considering whether they expect to see enhanced defenses, an increase in the complexity of attacks, or perhaps a blend of both outcomes.

A significant conclusion drawn from the discussions was that education and the sharing of knowledge and expertise across different vertical sectors and future enabling technology fields are crucial for advancing toward a secure and resilient connected society.

Business Impact Session

Pitching Session:

In total, 15 new project ideas were presented during the pitching session, led by Mrs. Christiane Reinsch, CELTIC-NEXT Programme Coordinator, who also moderated the day’s proceedings.

The session addressed critical challenges presented by the pitch presenters, focusing on solving current and future issues in a hyperconnected, sustainable world. Topics included advancements in Zero Touch Greenhouse connectivity services, automatic recognition and adaptation technologies for 6G, the development of Drone-as-a-Service solutions, the creation of digital passports to comply with new EU regulatory requirements, the exploration of emerging AI agents within the 6G landscape, and innovations aimed at enhancing AI transparency and interpretability.

Pitching session

The audience actively engaged with the presenters, inquiring about ways to contribute to the further development of these project ideas.

Consortium Building Sessions were announced during the pitching session and were successfully conducted the following week, attracting around 10 to 15 experts per session.

This diverse lineup of projects reflected a strong commitment to collaboration and innovation within the CELTIC community, addressing key challenges and opportunities in technology and sustainability.

The CELTIC-NEXT Proposers Day was a resounding success, fostering collaboration and innovation within the vibrant CELTIC community.