The CELTIC-NEXT Spring Call is open for project proposals in the area of telecommunications and ICT. The deadline for proposal submissions is 14 April 2022.
Further information is available on the CELTIC-NEXT Call Page.
The Eureka Clusters AI Call 2021 was launched on 1st March 2021 with a submission deadline of 28th June 2021. The aim of this Call is to boost the productivity and competitiveness of European industries through the adoption and use of AI systems and services.
The Call is based on the interest shown in the first Eureka Clusters AI Call in 2020 and the national priorities in the Eureka Member states. These priorities include supporting the development, adaption and utilisation of emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities across multiple vertical and technological domains.
This second Call for innovative projects in the AI domain was launched by the Eureka Clusters CELTIC-NEXT, EURIPIDES²-PENTA, EUROGIA, ITEA3, and SMART, together with 14 Public Authorities of Eureka member states. Eurescom has contributed to the Call via the CELTIC Office and by hosting the Call website.
Further information on the Call is available on the Eureka Clusters AI Call 2021 website.
Xavier Priem
Director CELTIC Office
For CELTIC-NEXT, 2025 was a year of renewal. The second EUREKA Clusters’ Programme (ECP) Arrangement was signed at the beginning of June 2025, with an effective start date of 1 July 2025. CELTIC-NEXT’s EUREKA Cluster’s License has been renewed for the next seven years with the strong support from the EUREKA Countries’ Network!
Let’s review what was achieved in 2025 and what we are currently planning for 2026.
On June 12, 2025, I had the honour of defending our CELTIC-NEXT application for a renewed license to operate as EUREKA Cluster. We received a clear positive vote from all voting countries, with a single exception (abstention). Beyond the quality of our application, it is the high-quality work of our community and our Office that has received this highest recognition from the EUREKA Network. The EUREKA Countries place seven years of renewed trust in us. We can now build on those seven years to develop a powerful new phase of CELTIC-NEXT: a revised and broader SRIA, improved and simplified processes, and expanding our presence across more countries, including beyond European borders (Canada, Brazil, Chile, Singapore, etc.).
Our intense engagement in the overall EUREKA Clusters Programme (ECP) will continue following three principal axes:
1. Pursuing the lead role on the writing of the ECP Processes Handbook, working with the other clusters and the Public Authorities. This work is essential as it will define more harmonised processes between clusters and public authorities to address the current challenges of the ECP, such as the time it takes to start a project after it has been labelled.
2. Implementing the requested changes in our CELTIC-NEXT processes and tools to reflect on point nr. 1.
3. Coordinating Clusters’ contributions to the ECP, with CELTIC-NEXT’s Director as Clusters Coordinator for the Industry side.
Thank you, Canada and Germany!
Eureka Chair Handover Ceremony: from Germany & Canada Presidency to Switzerland Presidency
The EUREKA Network was co-presided over by Canada and Germany from July 2024 to June 2025. Switzerland has now taken over for the current EUREKA year, from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. CELTIC-NEXT’s Director’s assignment as Clusters Coordinator Industry spans over the same period.
In the name of CELTIC-NEXT, I would like to thank Canada and Germany for their outstanding leadership and support in achieving the significant step of renewing the ECP and the five Clusters licenses. This work has exposed CELTIC-NEXT to the Canadian Public Authority Representatives more deeply, which leads us to jointly plan an increased participation of Canadian entities (SMEs mainly) in our cluster’s bottom-up calls and flagships.
From 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, Switzerland, represented by the innovation funding agency Innosuisse, assumes EUREKA’s Chair. This leadership role coincides with a major milestone: EUREKA’s 40th anniversary. In this capacity, the Swiss Chair has outlined an ambitious agenda, built around three forward-looking priorities:
1. Strengthening collaboration: among EUREKA’s beneficiaries, members, and partner organisations;
2. Amplifying impact: showcasing successes and shaping the future funding portfolio, and,
3. Empowering beneficiaries: through improved support and operational excellence.
More about Swiss Chair priorities and events under https://www.eurekanetwork.org/about-us/chair/
The Spring Call 2025 was a success, with nineteen valid proposals, from which eleven got labelled and are in the ramp-up phase. It is still possible to join some of these projects while they are ramping up. Please visit https://www.celticnext.eu/running-projects/ for more information.
When this edition of the CELTIC-NEXT’s News is published, the Autumn Call 2025 would have closed (deadline 24 October 2025). Therefore, it is already time to announce the Spring Call 2026!
The Spring Call 2026 will be launched at the beginning of December 2025 in an online event. The Proposers’ Brokerage Day will take place in person at the end of January or the beginning of February 2026, probably in Brussels/Belgium (to be confirmed). The precise date and location will be announced via our Newsletter and our website. The full project proposals’ submission will close on April 24, 2026, for a labelling decision before mid-June 2026. The forecasted possible start period for labelled projects would then be the second half of 2026.
A new, updated SRIA will enable future successful innovation support and change.
We are still collecting updates from our community on our Strategic Research and Innovation Roadmap (SRIA), which we are currently refining. We will incorporate this new SRIA in our Launch Events and Proposers’ Brokerage Days in 2026, to allow consortia to propose innovative projects in a more extensive variety of technologies, services, applications, and verticals. This reinforces our traditional bottom-up approach. We will continue to run our Spring and Autumn Calls based on this successful legacy. Bottom-up approach is a unique selling point of CELTIC-NEXT as an EUREKA Cluster compared to other international funding schemes (top-down approach). Please contact me () if you wish to contribute.
SUSTAINET is running!
The new flagship, SUSTAINET, was labelled for its initial application in June 2024. Its central theme is network resilience, energy efficiency, sustainability, high-performing end-to-end networks, and network security. In the meantime, SUSTAINET and its three sub-projects have kicked-off. Despite being in the ramp-up phase, SUSTAINET has already begun its dissemination work, notably by attending several events like Hannover Messe and the ICOC 2025 Conference.
Canadian companies have now also joined SUSTAINET, extending its boundaries beyond Europe.
The CELTIC-NEXT office is happy to connect with potential new partners interested in joining the flagship during this first phase. Please contact us at office@celticnext.eu or directly the SUSTAINET Consortium .
3D-NET is ramping up!
The Spring Call 2021 project 6G-SKY concluded this summer 2025, marking a great success. It’s leading partner, Airbus Defence & Space, together with KTH and several participants from 6G-SKY, successfully applied in the Spring Call 2025 and have been granted a new labelled project, called 3D-NET. 3D-NET is the seed of a future flagship strand on Airspace/Non-Terrestrial and Terrestrial Networks convergence. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at .
The director of CELTIC-NEXT has the mandate from CELTIC-NEXT’s Core Group to propose and integrate new industry members into the existing Core Group. Discussions are ongoing with several industrial companies.
The new ECP is signed to last seven years, providing the EUREKA Clusters with extended visibility into the future and, therefore, elaborating a stronger path for growth.
2026 will be the year of the new EUREKA Clusters Programme (ECP) ramp-up and more detailed implementation.
2026 will be a year of improvement; Optimization and simplification of processes to increase the programme’s efficiency, reducing delays from ideation to proposal submission, evaluation and finally to funding (incl. its synchronisation).
2026 will be a year of growth, starting with the renewed trust and support of existing partnering Public Authorities, and new incoming funding countries, such as Lithuania, Chile, and Brazil.
Finally, in 2026, an increased collaboration with Canada will take place. We have initiated discussions on how to facilitate Canada’s participation in CELTIC-NEXT brokerage events. This means that we will integrate this into our event planning, as it requires time to assemble such delegations to travel to Europe.
Stay tuned by visiting our Call Calendar page: https://www.celticnext.eu/call-calendar/ and/or by subscribing to our
Newsletter under https://www.celticnext.eu/news-subscription/
Xavier Priem
Director CELTIC Office
For CELTIC-NEXT, 2025 is a year of renewal. The 2nd EUREKA Clusters’ Programme starts in July 2025, and a new, updated SRIA will enable future successful innovation support and change. Let’s look at what was achieved in the first half of 2025 and what we plan for the rest of the year.
It was an intensive first half year for many reasons. As the Director of our Cluster, I had to prepare our application for a renewed license to operate as EUREKA Cluster. With the support of our Chairman, David Kennedy, we delivered a high-quality application. We are confident that we will be authorised to act further under the EUREKA license from July 2025 onwards. CELTIC-NEXT has strongly contributed to the new EUREKA Clusters’ Programme (ECP) Arrangement framework documents redaction and the Clusters’ operations license form. This intense engagement will continue with taking the lead on the ECP Handbook of processes, working with the other clusters and the Public Authorities. This work is essential as it will define more harmonised processes between clusters and with the Public Authorities to address current challenges of the ECP, such as the time to start a project after it has been labelled. Finally, I have the honour to have been chosen to represent the ECP Clusters as spokesperson to the new EUREKA Presidency of Switzerland from the 1st of July 2025 to the 30th of June 2026.
The EUREKA Network is currently under Canadian and German co-presidency until the beginning of June 2025. Switzerland will then take over for one year, until June 2026!
The dual presidency of Canada and Germany was new in EUREKA’s history; it has shown how excellent international and inter-continental R&D&I cooperation is. Canada wishes to have more projects with CELTIC-NEXT in the coming years. We have started discussions on how to make it possible for Canada to bring companies to CELTIC-NEXT brokerage events. This means that we will integrate this into our event planning as it requires time to assemble such delegations to travel to Europe.
We have started collecting our community’s feedback on our strategic research and innovation roadmap (SRIA), which we are currently updating. The target is to provide this new SRIA as input to our participation in the new ECP period starting July 2025. The duration of the new ECP is still under discussion but it is already decided to make it longer than the original four years, à priori seven years. We will incorporate this new SRIA in our Launch Events and Proposers’ Brokerage Days, starting second half 2025, to allow consortia to propose innovative projects in a more extensive variety of technologies, services, applications, and verticals. This reinforces our traditional bottom-up approach. We will continue to run our Spring and Autumn Calls based on our successful legacy. This is a unique selling point of CELTIC as a Eureka Cluster compared to other international funding schemes.
When this edition of the CELTIC-NEXT’s News is published, the Spring Call 2025 would have closed. Therefore, it is already time to announce the Autumn Call 2025! The Autumn Call 2025 will be launched in July 2025 via an online event. The Proposers’ Brokerage Day will take place in a physical presence at the beginning of September 2025. The precise date and location will be announced via our Newsletter and website. The submission will close on the 24th of October 2025 for a labelling decision before mid-December 2025. Forecasted possible start period for labelled projects would be the first half of 2026. We can also happily say that more countries support CELTIC-NEXT, like Chile, Lithuania, and soon Brazil.
The new flagship, SUSTAINET, was labelled for its initial application in June 2024. Its central theme is network resilience, energy efficiency, sustainability, high-performing end-to-end networks, and network security. In the meantime, SUSTAINET and its three sub-projects have started. Despite being in the ramp-up phase, SUSTAINET has already begun its dissemination work, notably by attending the Hannover Messe .
More detailed information on SUSTAINET is provided in the corresponding article in this CELTIC-NEXT News issue.
The CELTIC-NEXT office is happy to connect with potential new additional partners interested in joining the flagship during the ramp-up phase. Please contact us at .
The director of CELTIC-NEXT has the mandate from CELTIC-NEXT’s Core Group to propose and integrate new industry members into the existing Core Group. Some discussions are ongoing for some industrial companies.
2025 is the year of the renewal of CELTIC-NEXT as EUREKA Cluster under the new EUREKA Clusters Programme (ECP). The new ECP is foreseen to last seven years, providing the EUREKA Clusters with extended visibility into the future and, therefore, elaborating a stronger path for growth. 2025 should be a year of growth, starting with the upcoming new ECP framework arrangement, the renewed trust and support of existing partnering Public Authorities, and new incoming funding countries like Lithuania, Chile and Brazil!
2025 will continue to be the year of the new flagship(s) implementation, a strong collaborative effort from all stakeholders, consortia participants, the CELTIC-NEXT Office, and the involved Public Authorities!
Stay tuned by visiting our Call Calendar page: https://www.celticnext.eu/call-calendar/ and/or by subscribing to our Newsletter under https://www.celticnext.eu/news-subscription/
Project launch: https://www.celticnext.eu/sustainet-showcased-at-hannover-messe-2025/
Christiane Reinsch
CELTIC-NEXT Programme Coordinator
The day started with a warm welcome from José Carlos Pedro, the President of the Board of Directors from our host organization Instituto de Telecomunicações in Aveiro, Portugal, followed by a short welcome from the CELTIC-NEXT Director Mr. Xavier Priem.
Both underlined the importance of in-person gatherings to foster new project ideas and to exchange on the latest advancements in the next generation of telecommunication.
Two keynotes in the area of AI have been presented focusing on International Regulation and legal Frameworks, highlighting the transformative potential of 6G, current trends in the compute continuum that underpin a European value-based AI ecosystem.
The first keynote gave insights “on the path to the AI-ACT”, kindly presented by Prof. Diogo Gomes from Instituto de Telecomunicações.
Prof. Diogo Gomes started with an overview on the EU AI-ACT that has been unanimously approved by the EU Council on 21 May 2024 and is foreseen to be fully applicable in 2026. The EU AI-ACT balances innovation with fundamental rights and safety, it is the first comprehensive European AI regulatory framework. Prof. Gomes touched on the basics of its Risk-based framework ranging from no obligation for minimal risk to conformity assessment for unacceptable AI risks as, for example, social scoring as well as unacceptable prohibited aspects of AI covered within the EU AI-ACT.
Transparency and Explainability, record-keeping as well as Auditability were mentioned as key requirements for High-Risk AI systems.
Open questions such as the ambiguity in definitions, enforcement capacity and expertise as well as risk of over-regulation vs under regulation have been discussed, as the importance of global competitiveness of AI systems is of utmost importance and the compliance is often seen as a burden to the industry.
He emphasized the need for adaptive flexible rules in a fast-moving field to underline the strength of the European industry in the Telecom ecosystem and the benefit it provides to its vertical markets. This approach strengthens vertical markets to thrive and fully leverage a strong alliance in the telecom sector.
In his keynote Prof. Gomes gave an overview on international legal frameworks such as for example the Algorithmic Accountability Act and the Stop Discrimination by Algorithmic Acts in the United States; the AIDA Act in Canada; the Basic Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of Foundation for Trust in Korea, and the Act on the Promotion of Research, Development and Utilization of Artificial Intelligence-Related Technologies in Japan.
GSMA RAI that provides guidance for mobile operators and ecosystem partners on designing and deploying AI responsibly have been touched as well as the technical standards for secure and trustworthy AI from ETSI supporting the EU AI-Act compliance ecosystem through harmonized standards.
The second keynote, kindly presented by Wolfgang John, Principal Researcher at Ericsson Research Sweden, on the topic of “6G: Fuelling the AI Compute Continuum” began with an overview of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) process regarding the ongoing 6G 3GPP standardization activities, which are scheduled to start in end of 2024 and are expected to lead to commercial release in 2029 and beyond.
Wolfgang John provided insights on how AI-native networks, 6G Compute, Trustworthy systems and limitless connectivity capabilities of the 6G network platform serve as key enablers for co-creating a cyber physical world. First ideas on AI powered services have been shown working on today’s but also on tomorrows mobile networks that are both a communication and a computing platform.
Next generation of 6G networks include AI native infrastructure closely coupled to distributed data networks through a common platform functionality as cloud infrastructure, transport and data infrastructure serving end customers needs. The 6G network platform ensures service assurance, external interaction and business support through network assets that include cloud native and AI native infrastructure in a cyber physical world.
Especially the 6G AI compute continuum will simplify the procurement and deployment of future ready applications and devices. Optimization of connectivity compute and AI as well as network architectures supporting network insights and data as well as optimizing data transfer proved by large scale use cases have been highlighted during the presentation.
Examples of relevant data and insights within a mobile network as fraud detection and prevention, connectivity status and prediction, spatial data and user density have been mentioned to evolve in the future by the implementation of 6G and the AI compute continuum.
Trust, privacy and data sovereignty has been highlighted as potential driver for local compute and AI services. This presents a significant opportunity for mobile network operators as a nationally regulated business partner offering trustworthy bundles of communication, compute, data handling and AI model management. Immediate questions from the audience were raised on when the solution would be ready to be used. Which underlined the interest from industry viewpoint on the 6G and AI native compute continuum.
As part of the Proposers Day, representatives from the CELTIC funding bodies explained details of funding in their country. Mrs. Polina Pereira from ANI opened the session by warmly welcoming the CELTIC Community in Aveiro and then presented the funding scheme in Portugal. Following Mrs. Pereira’s presentation, Mrs. Juana Sánchez from CDTI, Spain, gave insights on new funding opportunities in Spain and encouraged the participants from Spain to submit a high quality proposals related to the advices given in her presentation.
Representative from ANI, Portugal: Mrs. Polina Pereira Representative from CDTI, Spain: Mrs. Juana Sanchez
Following the funding presentation in Spain, our new Public Authorities representative Mrs. Bahriye Özkara from TUBITAK, Türkiye, showed relevant details on how to apply on national level in Türkiye to the interested participants. The funding landscape in Finland and support of CELTIC Calls has been kindly explained by Mr. Heikki Uusi Honko from Business Finland. Mrs. Camille Tang-Taye Pinois from BPI France followed his presentation and provided insights on the processes in France to the audience.
Mr. Pedro Lousa from Beyond Vision, highlighted the impressive growth and success of Beyond Vision which is a high-tech drone company, noting that it is among the first drone operators to utilize 5G technology, enabling extended-range communications. He also emphasized the company’s coordination role within the CELTIC project Intelligent Edge of Things (IEoT) that operated and finished successfully even during the Corona Pandemic. The expected revenue for Beyond Vision’s Drone Group, which entered the market in 2021, is projected to reach approximately €13 million by 2025, supported by a workforce of around 70 employees. The company specializes in dual-use applications for both civil and military purposes.
In the next session, hands on experience from the CELTIC Experts where given. The session was opened by Mr. Xavier Priem, CELTIC Director, followed closely by Prof. Ayman Radwan, who explained in detail his CELTIC project success in the Health area as well as useful advices on the journey from Proposal Idea to a successful project end including strong guidelines on how to prepare a successful CELTIC Proposal.
Overall 15 new project ideas have been presented in the pitching session moderated by Mrs. Christiane Reinsch, CELTIC programme coordinator, who also moderated the days proceedings.
The pitching session was highly interactive and showcased innovation, featuring presentations such as Secure X, presented by DFKI from Germany, which captivated the audience with its cutting-edge security solutions. Celtiberian SL from Spain impressed with DronaaS, highlighting the potential of drone-as-a-service. A team of two from Airties, Türkiye, introduced Scota and Wi-Excellence, their smart connectivity test automation solutions, which promise to enhance network performance and Wi-Fi connectivity. Finally, Screenlight presented the concept of Cinema Futuro, sparking excitement about the future of cinema and its evolving technologies. Many more presentations were given, each one not only informative but also interactive, engaging the audience in discussions about the future of their dynamic sectors. Each of the presenters invited to an online consortium-building sessions that took place the following week.
Throughout the day, the pitch presenters gathered around posters to discuss their presentations with potential new partners.
After the pitching session, the attendees enjoyed the guided tour through the Lab of Insituto de Telecomunicações.
Poster Session: Burcu Ergun, Airties, Türkiye At the Entrance, happy team of two: Mehmet Sükrü Kuran and Burcu Ergun from Airties, Türkiye
https://www.celticnext.eu/event/proposers-brokerage-day-on-11-september-2025-in-aveiro-portugal/
Christiane Reinsch
CELTIC-NEXT Programme Coordinator
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.
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.
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
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.
Erwan Pincemin
Project Coordinator @ Orange SA
EMBRACE (for Efficient Multi-Band Network Architecture and Components for Petabit/s Elastic Networks) aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of a metropolitan/regional multi-span optical transmission system operating in the S+C+L-band between 1460 nm and 1620 nm with all the required multi-band components and devices, including the Wavelength Division Multiplex (WDM) transceivers, multi-band optical amplifiers and the associated band/wavelength (Multiplexer/Demultiplexer) MUX/DMUX. A study was also carried out on the impact of opening new wavelength windows on the operation of an all-optical multi-band transport network.
To reach these ambitious objectives, the CELTIC-NEXT EMBRACE project gathered a consortium of five French and Canadian partners, i.e. Orange (Leader), Ekinops, MPB Communications, EXAIL and IMT Atlantique. The project funded by BPI France, the Britanny Region, Lannion Trégor Communauté and the National Research of Canada started in October 2021 and finished in last December 2024 by a demo of the operation of the targeted S+C+L-band WDM transmission system. The demo was performed in front of the supporting (CELTIC Office, Pôle de Compétitivité Images & Réseaux, Pôle de Compétitivité ALPHA RLH) and funding organizations.
Multi-band optical transmission faces complex challenges, the most important of which is Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS), which generates energy transfer from high-frequency (or low-wavelength) bands to low-frequency (or high-wavelength) bands. EMBRACE introduces an innovative optical amplification technology that combines distributed Raman amplification in the line fiber and discrete/lumped S-band Raman amplification in a specially designed nonlinear fiber (CRF) prototype to counteract inter-band energy transfer. SRS control in combination with periodic gain equalization (every N spans) is mandatory to allow the combination of multiple standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) spans and enable metropolitan/regional transmission applications. With this, the consortium was able to transmit 240 channels (considering the 50 GHz ITU grid) between 1480 and 1610-nm over 4 x 100 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) spans. Multi-band optical transmission is very useful to maximize the use of existing fiber optic infrastructures and to optimally fill loaned fibers in regions where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do not own their fiber infrastructure. Multi-band technology is also an opportunity to make optical transport networks more flexible.
During the project, four multi-band distributed Raman amplifiers with multi-pump wavelengths were built and delivered for the final demo. Five lumped / discrete Raman amplifiers using multi-pump wavelengths were also manufactured to amplify the S-band at different points in the set-up. These amplifiers are particularly flexible in shaping the gain and have better performance in terms of noise figure compared to standard amplification technology for the S-band (i.e. Thulium-doped fiber amplification). Multi-band (S+C+L-band) and wavelength (O-, E-, S-, U-band) MUX/DMUX were also designed and built. Finally, a multi-band WDM transponder prototype able to operate between 1460-nm and 1640-nm was realized and used with success during the final demo. The final demo combined these various elements in a S+C+L-band transmission set-up of 4×100-km of SSMF with successful transmission of 240 channels at 33-Gbaud (on 50-GHz ITU grid). 600-Gbps channels were successfully transmitted in the C- and L-band by switching off 33-Gbaud dummy channels (to insert the 96-Gbaud channels) and 100-Gbps channels were propagated in the S-band.
After preliminary tests of some crucial components requested by the various elements of EMBRACE and the specification definition, EKINOPS looked for the possible integration of the requested functions inside the existing platforms or in new platforms. Following the Orange INNOV recommendations, EKINOPS developed the ad-hoc architecture of a multi-band WDM coherent Muxponder operating between 1460 and 1640-nm at 100/200-Gbps, as well as defined the design of a discrete/lumped Raman amplifiers operating on the S-band. Finally, EKINOPS manufactured one prototype of the 100/200-Gbps multi-band WDM coherent Muxponder (following the design previously defined) as well as an optical gain block per prototype for a total of 5 prototypes, with many iterations for an improved amplification performance.
One of the main goals of the distributed Raman amplification (DRA) at the end of each 100-km span was to compensate for the transmission penalty experienced by the short wavelength channels due to the SRS-induced power transfer to the longer wavelength channels. It was therefore important to determine the optimum combination of pump wavelengths and powers for the DRA pump sources. MPB Communications carried out simulations of the transmission of 192 channels running from 1480 to 1610-nm over a 100-km SSMF span. The iterative simulations began with launching a flat channel spectrum and then optimizing the wavelengths and powers of a multi-wavelength DRA pump source to obtain the flattest possible received channel spectrum. The next step involved inverting this received channel power profile and applying it as a pre-emphasis launch profile into the 100-km SSMF span instead of the flat profile. With the same composite signal launch power and the same Raman counter pump powers, the simulation confirmed that this strategy resulted in a flat received channel spectrum. The optimum pump wavelengths and powers were determined through simulations and confirmed experimentally. The required powers were provided by two interconnected modules built by MPB Communications. The 600-mW output of a VERSA2-N2-LDP-600-13XX was fed into a VERSA2-N2-LDP-850-14XX/14XX where it was combined with the required powers at the other wavelengths.
Hereafter are described some examples of the work performed by the various partners of EMBRACE.
Since the pump powers launched into the span for the DRA are well above the Hazard Level 1M limit, the fiber path integrity must be confirmed prior to the turn-on of the pumps and must be continuously monitored during system operation so that, if there is a fiber break or connector disconnect, the pumps will immediately be automatically shut down. To provide this vital fiber integrity monitoring (FIM) function, the 13XX-nm pump unit is equipped with an out-of-band OSC laser diode transmitter at 1624 nm and both units have an OSC receiver. The WDM signal channels are combined with the FIM OSC signal and then launched to co-propagate down the span, as shown in the figure below. Receipt of the OSC signal by the Raman pump units at the far end confirms the integrity of the incoming fiber and is a necessary condition for the high-power pumps to be turned on. Once turned on, any subsequent interruption of the received OSC signal will trigger an ALS.
Multiplexers / Demultiplexers (MUX/DEMUX) are developed for more than 25 years by EXAIL, Integrated Systems Activity. They are historically linked with common telecommunication systems; thus, their conventional design is focused on C- and L-band. The specificity of EXAIL demultiplexers lies in the highly customizable frequency grid on a rather high number of channels. Frequency spacing range can be tuned from 10-GHz up to 400-GHz for up to 48 channels. This agility is the result of a free-spaced fabrication process containing a diffraction grating providing the dispersive function of the MUX/DEMUX. Any frequency spacing of this range can be accessible by tuning the incidence angle on the diffraction grating and choosing its groove spacing. In EMBRACE, EXAIL designed the band/wavelength MUX/DMUX able to operate on each of the targeted amplification bands of EMBRACE (i.e. S-, C- and L-band). But, to address the demand of existing and future customers, EXAIL also performed the design of O-, and S-band components, covering a band going from 1260-nm to 1620-nm. EXAIL manufactured for the project some prototypes in the O- and S-band.
IMT Atlantique worked on the evaluation of network scenarios for the introduction of multi-band WDM transmission systems on the existing fiber cable infrastructure for the different network segments and transport applications, both in terms of technical and techno-economical aspects. The problem is quite prospective as new types of optical fibers offering much more capacity are likely to appear in the mid-long-term future and could be a game changer, especially for short and medium distances. In the short-medium term perspective, the maturity of EDFA-based C+L-band transmission systems is likely to be generalized in long-haul transport network. In the metro/regional area network (MAN) domain for distances up to 400 km, a third band (S or U) could be added later when corresponding transponders and amplifiers will be available. Finally, the MAN is by far the easiest place for the use of four or more amplification band but deployment is strongly dependent on the price of equipment with respect to conventional solutions such as additional fiber deployment. In parallel, EMBRACE funded a PhD work at IMT Atlantique on improving the planning tools for multi-band WDM optical networks by embedding QoT constraints, added to the existing spectral constraints, within the linear programming procedure used for the resolution of the routing and spectrum assignment problem. In particular, the OSNR constraint using the Gaussian Noise (GN) model has been linearized in order to be included in the ILP optimization code. This allows to dramatically reduce the number of possible solutions and selects only routes that are optically feasible by real WDM systems. Hence, this integrated QoT-aware ILP finds realistic optical channel routing solutions in much more reasonable computation times and is proven to be faster and more accurate than the combined method where the found routes are a posteriori assessed by a third party GN model calculation software. However, this latter method based on existing software remains a robust back-up for multi-band optical network planning.
VERSA2-N2-LDP-600-13XX (top) and VERSA2-N2-LDP-850-14XX/14XX (bottom)
Orange INNOV led the project since the preparation stage in 2019 up to the final demo in December 2024. Orange INNOV proposed the optical amplification strategy of EMBRACE (that is at the core of the project) with the combination of DRA in the SSMF spans and discrete/lumped optical amplifier per band at the end of fiber spans, to control as accurately as possible the accumulation of SRS between the various bands (span after span). One of the key ideas of EMBRACE was also to carry out multi-span WDM transmission on the S+C+L-bands to be compliant with the MAN topology. Orange INNOV proposed the overall system architecture of EMBRACE, designed in partnership with EKINOPS the discrete/lumped Raman amplifier operating in the S-band, performed all the numerical simulations to check the viability of the EMBRACE system and confirm the design of both the distributed and discrete/lumped Raman amplifiers used in the EMBRACE demo. Finally, with the support of all the partners, EMBRACE built between September 2024 and December 2024 the final demo that has been shown to all the supporting/funding organizations on last December 17th, 2024. INFINERA (now NOKIA) has kindly made available for EMBRACE two C- and L-band 600-Gbps WDM Muxponders which were used to assess the performance of the corresponding amplification band.
In summary, EMBRACE demonstrated the possible use of metro/regional legacy fiber infrastructure for multi-band WDM transmission by keeping under control the inter-band SRS. EMBRACE has experimentally demonstrated that WDM transmission in S+C+L bands is possible over a multi-span fiber infrastructure (at least four 100 km amplifier spans) while keeping the inter-band SRS under control. EMBRACE gives a reassuring signal to the optical communications industry that investing in components and devices addressing bands other than C- and L-bands is a future-proof position that can potentially generate new revenues in the years to come.
Project web site: www.celticnext.eu/project-embrace/
The F4iTECH (Federated AI Platform for Industrial Technologies) project revolutionizes the manufacturing and airport industries by integrating Federated Learning (FL) and advanced AI technologies. Through a decentralized platform, F4iTECH enhances operational efficiency, ensures data privacy and optimizes resource management while addressing hidden challenges and reducing costs. With six pilot implementations showcasing transformative impacts, this innovative approach promises a more intelligent, resilient and sustainable future for industrial environments.
Building on its innovative approach, the F4iTECH project not only improves operational workflows but also tackles critical industry challenges such as data transmission, security and privacy. By leveraging FL-based AI, the platform enables real-time monitoring and decision-making without centralizing sensitive data, thereby enhancing compliance with regulatory frameworks and preserving data sovereignty. The integration of blockchain technology further secures data sharing through smart contracts, fostering collaboration among stakeholders while maintaining individual data ownership. The project’s success is evident in its six pilot implementations, which demonstrated tangible benefits like reduced operational inefficiencies, improved resource allocation, and enhanced resilience in both manufacturing and airport sectors. The Figure 1 shows the system approach and user interaction.
The project successfully demonstrated significant benefits for the manufacturing and airport industries by integrating FL-based AI into production and operational workflows. A major achievement is the development of FLactionTM, a scalable and privacy-preserving federated learning platform that enables decentralized AI training across multiple edge devices with a user-friendly approach for data scientists. FLactionTM supports seamless model aggregation while ensuring data remains on local devices, addressing privacy concerns and regulatory requirements in industrial applications.
In the airport use case, the project delivered solutions that provide stakeholders with highly accurate, real time predictions of passenger flows for specific time windows. By leveraging advanced machine learning models, these insights enabled airports, airlines, and ground handling services to optimize resource allocation, staffing, and facility management, leading to smoother operations and improved passenger experiences. As a result, the project significantly reduced operational inefficiencies stemming from outdated or inaccurate forecasting methods, minimizing delays, overcrowding, and resource mismanagement. Furthermore, the integration of FL-based AI tackled critical industry challenges, particularly in data transmission, security, and privacy. By enabling decentralized data analysis, the solution eliminated the need for large-scale centralized data repositories, thereby enhancing compliance with stringent regulatory frameworks while also preserving data sovereignty for participating stakeholders. This approach not only ensured the confidentiality of sensitive passenger information but also fostered greater collaboration among stakeholders by allowing them to access valuable insights without compromising individual data ownership.
The results of the project are expected to have a lasting impact on different sectors, enhancing operational efficiency, reducing costs and improving stakeholder collaboration. The technologies developed may serve as a foundation for new product developments, standardization efforts, and further research. Additionally, the outcomes of the project, including methodologies and findings, have the potential for publication in major papers, fostering wider adoption and refinement of FL-based AI in industry applications.
Figure 1: F4iTECH Federated Learning Platform Architecture
F4iTECH delivers significant benefits to the manufacturing, retail and airport industries by seamlessly integrating FL-based AI solutions into industrial processes. Utilizing distributed ledgers, the project securely records all relevant events and transactions within the Industry 4.0 ecosystem, enabling stakeholders and end consumers to intuitively verify data and establish smart contracts. Through systematic AI-driven predictive maintenance and machinery inspection, F4iTECH enhances equipment performance and reduces deterioration rates by 20%. By addressing and resolving hidden operational challenges, the project aims to cut invisible and internalized costs by 15%, contributing to more efficient and cost-effective industrial environments.
The F4iTECH project demonstrates how Federated Learning (FL) and advanced AI technologies can transform industrial sectors by enhancing operational efficiency, data privacy, and resource management. The project’s decentralized approach not only solves hidden challenges but also reduces costs and improves resilience. Future projects/products could build on F4iTECH’s methodologies to explore broader applications of FL-based AI in other industries, advancing data-driven innovation while maintaining stringent privacy standards.
https://www.celticnext.eu/project-f4itech/
Juana Sanchéz
CELTIC-NEXT representative
Centre for the Technology Development and the Innovation (CDTI)
CDTI is a Business Public Entity under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities that promotes innovation and technological development of Spanish companies. This is the entity that engages applications assistance and support R&D&I projects of Spanish companies at national and international level.
Therefore, the aim of CDTI is to contribute to the improvement of the technological level of Spanish companies through the development of the following activities:
› Technical and economic evaluation and awarding of public aid to innovation through subsidies or aid partly refundable R&D projects developed by companies.
› Management and promotion of the Spanish participation in international programmes for technology cooperation.
› Promotion of the international transfer of technology and business support services to technological innovation.
› Support for the establishment and consolidation of technology-based enterprises.
The bulk of its infrastructure is in Madrid but, in addition, CDTI offers to Spanish companies a strategic network of offices and representatives abroad (SOST OFFICES – Spain Office of Science and Technology), specifically in Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco and USA, to support them in their technology activities abroad.
CDTI launches its first INNOGLOBAL Call with FEDER (European Regional Development Fund) funds to reinforce the support in International Cooperation projects labelled from January to October 2025. Projects labelled under CELTIC-NEXT Spring Call 2025 are eligible for this Call. The beneficiaries are Spanish SMEs and mid-caps (up to 500 employees). Subcontracting is possible (not mandatory) up to 50% (70% in Health sector).
Spanish companies that belong to the eligible regions (Andalusia, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, and Murcia) will be able to benefit with grants up to 80% of the budget.
The fundable activities are industrial research and/or experimental development. The eligible costs include personnel, instruments / material, subcontracting, general expenses, audit, travel and indirect costs. The minimum budget is €175,000 per company/project. The projects must start in 2025 and end by June 30, 2028, at the latest.
INNOGLOBAL opens from May till June 2025. An international funding request (EUREKA funding request in case of CELTIC-NEXT) will be required before applying.
For the rest of the non-eligible regions, CDTI offers a mix of loan and grants under the “Proyectos de Cooperación Tecnológica Internacional” funding line.
5G-PERFECTA project is a good example of CELTIC-NEXT success, which aim has been to develop the technology to assure the 5G service quality based on data processing, that is, to guarantee that the quality of 5G networks is aligned with the expectations of bandwidth, latency and other key performance indicators. The project has contributed to the analysis of the 5G performance, the supervision of 5G networks, technologies for monitoring 5G networks, supervision of services and applications as well as 5G monitoring and measurement devices.
The project has developed a 5G performance compliance testing assurance solution that calculates KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to show the real behaviour of 5G network and services. In addition, 5G-PERFECTA has developed automated processes, tools and mechanisms ensuring 5G service quality based on data processing and analytics approaches, under two main project scenarios and six use cases. The 5G Network Performance scenario provides the performance monitoring information and includes the testbed and measurement scope for 5G network performance analysis. The 5G Quality Assurance scenario provides the quality of service monitoring information, including the time sensitive networking mechanisms, the deployment of critical services with performance guarantees and the QoS observability for 5G. The following figure shows the project scenarios and use cases.
In addition, 5G-PERFECTA has developed a monitoring platform to deliver real measurements over the new generation mobile networks, tested on a real infrastructure. These performance indicators are helping to determine the suitability of new mobile infrastructure, including 5G to support next generation applications in mobility.
The project, led by Minsait, has benefited greatly from a well-balanced consortium, involving 5G operators, vendors and system integrators with small and medium-sized enterprises and academia from Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, Portugal and Poland.
The overall quality is perceived as high objectively measured by the amount of valuable contributions outside the project group (86) to the technology related to 5G-PERFECTA, in which the main innovations have been transferred: 44 papers in most relevant international journals symposiums and conferences (IEEE ISCC, IEEE INFOCOM, JCOMSS, IEEE Access, IEEE Transactions, Elsevier Measurement, etc.); 10 contributions to standardization bodies (ITU-T, VQEG and TM Forum); 10 PhD theses & Master theses; and 22 other exhibitions, dissemination events and activities.
5G-PERFECTA project has received the CELTIC-NEXT Excellence Award for Services and Applications in 2024.
5G-PERFECTA wins the 2024 CELTIC-NEXT Excellence Award for Services and Applications.
Spain has strongly supported CELTIC programme since it started in 2003. Telecommunications sector in Spain has an experienced and high added value community at national and international level.
CDTI strengthens its support to CELTIC programme with FEDER INNOGLOBAL Calls. Participants of CELTIC Spring Call 2025 can benefit from the FEDER INNGLOBAL Call 2025.
› CDTI website – https://www.cdti.es/en
› 5G-PERFECTA – http://www.5gperfecta.eu/
Xavier Priem
Director CELTIC Office
CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts are central and instrumental to CELTIC’s success since its inception in 2003. They are at the core of CELTIC’s SRIA, Labelling Evaluations, Projects’ Evaluations, and Reputation. Without them, there would be no CELTIC, CELTIC-PLUS, or CELTIC-NEXT programmes! They are the CELTIC Experts!
Please allow us to offer more insight into their group in CELTIC-NEXT, including their tasks and the impact they have on your projects.
The Group of Experts (GoE) is responsible for assessing project proposals and participating in CELTIC project reviews. The GoE includes several sub-groups dedicated to specific technical areas. Core group members nominate individuals for the GoE, and an expert presides over each GoE meeting.
The CELTIC-NEXT Core Group has established a permanent CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts, which has delegated responsibilities and carries out specific tasks. The CELTIC-NEXT Core Group determines the working rules for the CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts. The number of members and the composition of the CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts are agreed upon by the CELTIC-NEXT Core Group. The CELTIC-NEXT Core Group may decide to replace a member in the CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts if such a member becomes an Affiliate to another Participant with a representative in the CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts, or to a company not resident in Europe, or if the criteria for their membership no longer apply, or to appoint additional members.
After evaluation by the CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts, the CELTIC-NEXT Core Group, in agreement with the involved Public Authorities (PAs), decides whether to grant a label, hereinafter called the “CELTIC-NEXT Label”, to the proposed Project. The CELTIC-NEXT Label confirms that the CELTIC-NEXT Organisation considers the proposed Project aligned with the Programme’s goals and that the applying organisations are eligible to participate as Participants in the Programme. It also confirms that the CELTIC-NEXT Organisation recommends the Project for public funding. The CELTIC-NEXT Project Proposal is the fundamental technical document submitted for funding applications to the respective PAs. The final decision on funding rests with the respective PAs.
The CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts is a delegated responsibility by the CELTIC-NEXT Core Group for all decisions regarding the selection and monitoring of projects. Unless otherwise determined by the CELTIC-NEXT Core Group, the CELTIC-NEXT Group of Experts carries out the following tasks:
› Developing, updating, and implementing guidelines for the selection and ranking of technical projects.
› Making recommendations on giving the CELTIC-NEXT Label to project proposals and funding outlook by PAs.
› Making recommendations in case of major Project change requests.
› Participating in mid-term reviews and giving recommendations to achieve better project outcomes (see Figure 1).
› Participating in final reviews, assessing project outcomes and results, and providing further recommendations on further exploitation and potential follow-up projects.
› Advising the CELTIC-NEXT Core Group on all relevant issues.
Figure 1: The positive effect of CELTIC-NEXT’s Experts’ recommendations at mid-term reviews
