The ETSI Research Conference took place on the 6th to 8th February 2023 in ETSI Headquarters, Sophia Antipolis, France

This face-to-face event provided an exceptional opportunity for the research community to come together with industry representatives and standardization experts to discuss future technology research and links to standardization developments.

Maximizing the Impact of European 6G Research through Standardization

At the beginning of 2023, the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) launched the first phase of 5G / 6G research projects, many of which will play a crucial role in the definition of next generation networks. The ETSI Research Conference provided the perfect platform for these new projects to present their purpose and plans and exchange with the standards experts on their standardization roadmaps. More information about SNS JU projects is available here.

In addition, the ETSI Research Conference provided guidance to researchers on how to get involved in standardization, present success stories and examples of research being integrated into standards, as well as indications from the standards community as to where they would seek research input to help move next generation standardization forward.

The event enabled a fully interactive exchange between researchers, projects, industry and standards experts, with an overall objective of increasing visibility of European research initiatives and accelerating the journey from innovation / research, standards and on to global market deployments.

The event included poster sessions presenting several of the new SNS JU projects (see posters tab).

By attending the event:

  • the research community learnt about the latest European research projects, and the plans for future activities and funding as well as guidance on when, where and how to get involved in standardization
  • the standards community learnt about the latest innovative technology research areas that may have an impact on their future work, as well as making early connections to projects of relevance to their work
  • the wider ICT community learnt about latest research and technology developments and network with the researchers who will be at the leading edge of these innovations
  • all attendees enjoyed an open and honest exchange, and the ability to network with experts leading the technology innovation for the next generation of networks

Agenda 

  • Monday 6 February
  •  
     

    14:00 - 15:30:  SESSION 1: Opening Address and European 5G/6G Research Landscape
    Chaired by Markus Mueck, ETSI Board RISE Chair

    The session will provide an outline of the conference objectives, and will set the scene for research in Europe with a presentation of the main EC platforms.

    • 14:00 Welcome and Opening Address
      • Markus Mueck, ETSI Board RISE Chair
      • Luis Jorge Romero, ETSI Director General

    • 14:05 Welcome Address and State of SNS-JU, EU Landscape & Plans
      Peter Stuckmann, SNS JU Interim Executive Director and Head of Unit, DG CONNECT, European Commission 

    • 14:20 6G-IA Status and Plans for Action
      Colin Willcock, 6G-IA Board 

    • 14:35 NetworldEurope, SRIA Status and Plans for Action
      Rui L Aguiar, Steering Board, NetworldEurope

    • 14:50  Code of Practice on Standardization in the New ERA for Research and Innovation
      Gergely Tardos, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission

    • 15:05 Q&A and Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by Markus Mueck

    15:30 - 16:00: Networking Coffee Break and Posters' Visit

    16:00 - 17:35: SESSION 2: National 6G Research Initiatives and Links to Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU)
    Chaired by Colin Willcock, 6G-IA Board Chair

    The goal of the session will be to present several National 6G research initiatives and examine how they will work with SNS JU as well as feed research into standards.

    • 16:00 Overview of German 6G R&D Platforms
      Hans Schotten, 6G Platform Germany

    • 16:15 Overview of Finnish 6G R&D Landscape inc. 6G Flagship
      Marcos Katz, 6G Flagship

    • 16:30 Overview of Spanish 6G R&I Landscape
      Fernando Rico, CDTI

    • 16:45 Overview of the Dutch 6G R&D Collaboration in the Future Network Services Program
      Paul Wijngaard, Future Network Services Foundation

    • 17:00 Overview of the UK R&D Landscape
      Tom Kirkham, Innovate UK UKRI and Louise Lancaster, DCMS 

    • 17:15 Overview of the French 6G R&D in the National Acceleration Strategy for 5G & Future Networks Technologies
      Hakima Chaouchi, French High Education and Research Ministry

    • 17:25 Panel Discussion with the Session Speakers, moderated by Colin Willcock

    17:45 Networking Drinks in ETSI Reception area

    19:00: End of Day 1

  • Tuesday 7 February
  •  
     

    09:00 - 10:30: SESSION 3: ETSI Tools & Services for Researchers and Academics
    Chaired by David Boswarthick, Director NET (New Technology Department), ETSI

    The objective of the session will be to present the various tools and enablers that ETSI provides to researchers, projects, and academia.

    • 09:00 Overview of ETSI Tools & Services for Researchers
      Markus Mueck, ETSI Board RISE

    • 09:15 ETSI Technology Radar
      Christian Toche, ETSI Board TREND


    • 09:30 ETSI Support to Research Projects
      David Boswarthick, ETSI

    • 09:45 Introduction to ETSI Support of Standardization Initiatives for Education about Standardization (EaS)
      Gavin Craik, ETSI

    • 10:00 Overview of HSBooster and StandICT projects
      Nicholas Ferguson, HSbooster.eu

    • 10:15 Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by David Boswarthick

    10:30 - 11:00: Networking Coffee and Posters' Visit

    11:00 - 12:30: SESSION 4: Enabling Interactions between Research & Standardization - Standards towards Research: Needs, Experiences and Enhancements,
    Chaired by Diego Lopez, ETSI ISG PDL Chair, ETSI ISG NFV NOC Chair

    The session will address how ETSI standards groups can better interact with research and innovation (provoking research input to technical work).

    • 11:00  3GPP Open to Research: Where, When, How to Contribute
      Thomas Haustein, Fraunhofer HHI

    • 11:15 The ETSI ISG NFV Research Agenda
      Diego Lopez, ETSI ISG NFV NOC 

    • 11:30 The ETSI ISG MEC Approach to Research
      Walter Featherstone, ETSI ISG Multi-access Edge Computing (ISG MEC) 

    • 11:45 Overview of ETSI ISG RIS: Research to Standards Story
      Arman Shojaeifard, ETSI ISG Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (ISG RIS) 

    • 12:00 Overview of ETSI ISG THz: Research to Standards Story
      Thomas Kuerner, ETSI ISG TeraHertz (ISG THz) 

    • 12:15 Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by Diego Lopez

    12:30 - 14:00: Networking Lunch and Posters' Visit

    14:00 - 15:30: SESSION 5: Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) Projects Part 1  (Stream A, Strand A1 - A7)
    Chaired by Kostas Trichias, 6G-IA 

    The SNS Phase 1 (2022) Stream A projects target the development of smart communication components, systems, and networks following the evolution of 5G systems. These projects follow an evolutionary path towards the development of 6G networks, relying on the development of an intermediate technology point. As such, the solutions developped by these projects are closer to the current standardization activities of 3GPP and other relevant SDOs and stand a chance to impact standardization in the short to mid-term. To achieve that, clear technology evolution directions and concrete targets with regards to standardization organizations and Work Groups are needed, aligned with the current SDO roadmaps.
    In this session, each project will present its key objectives, the technologies with potential for significant standardization impact and their standardization plans, and commonly discuss how to maximize short to mid-term impact in relevant SDOs.

    • 14:00 Project Presentation: 5G-STARDUST
      Mohamed El Jaafari

    • 14:10 Project Presentation: ACROSS
      Ioannis Markopoulos

    • 14:20 Project Presentation: BeGREEN
      Mir Ghoraishi

    • 14:30 Project Presentation: NANCY
      Alexandros Apostolos Boulogeorgos and Panagiotis Sarigiannidis

    • 14:40 Project Presentation: SEASON
      Filippo Cugini and Ramon Casellas 

    • 14:50 Project Presentation: VERGE
      Oriol Sallent

    • 15:00 Q&A and Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by Kostas Trichias

    15:30 - 16:00: Networking Coffee and Posters' Visit

    16:00 - 17:30: SESSION 6: Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) Projects Part 2 (Stream B, Strand B1 and B4)
    Chaired by Rui L. Aguiar, Steering Board Chair, NetworldEurope

    The SNS Phase 1 (2022) Stream B projects perform research for revolutionary technology advancements, in preparation for 6G and revolutionary advancements of IoT, devices and software. The strand B1 and B4 projects specifically will engage in 6G System Architecture research and Smart and Secure service development, respectively. These projects will attempt to address fundamental principles of the 6G system, which lay at the basis of technology standardization. Their findings stand the chance to significantly affect initial 6G discussions (use case/system requirements, KPIs, interfaces, etc.) in various SDO bodies, and as such concrete plans are needed with tight synchronization with the relevant SDO activities. Each project will present its key objectives, key enabling technologies researched and standardization plans, focusing on the identification of the proper SDO WG/body and the timing to maximize standardization impact.

    • 16:00 Project Presentation: ADROIT6G
      Kostas Ramantas

    • 16:10 Project Presentation: DETERMINISTIC6G (previously EINSTEIN6G)
      Dhruvin Patel

    • 16:20 Project Presentation: PREDICT-6G
       Zoltan Vincze

    • 16:30 Project Presentation: CONFIDENTIAL-6G
      Drasko Draskovic

    • 16:40 Project Presentation: HORSE
      Fabrizio Granelli

    • 16:50 Project Presentation: RIGOUROUS
      Cristian Patachia

    • 17:00  Project Presentation: PRIVATEER
      Diego Lopez 

    • 17:10 Q&A and Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by Rui L. Aguiar

    17:30: Networking Cocktail in ETSI Reception area

    19:00: End of day 2

  • Wednesday 8 February
  •  
     

    09:00 - 10:30: SESSION 7: Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) Projects Part 3 (Stream B, Strand B2 and B3)
    Chaired by Bernard Barani, Deputy Head of Unit, DG CONNECT, European Commission

    The SNS Phase 1 (2022) Stream B projects perform research for revolutionary technology advancements, in preparation for 6G and revolutionary advancements of IoT, devices and software. The strand B2 and B3 projects specifically will address Wireless communication and infrastructure technologies as well as 6G device technologies targeting innovative solutions of low TRL with a long-term horizon. As such, these projects stand to create some of the most significant innovations of the 6G system with end-to-end implications for the entire 6G chain. To ensure that these innovations become part of the 6G family of technologies, early planning and clear identification of the relevant SDO bodies and their respective roadmaps is necessary, while good knowledge of the ongoing standardization activities and decisions, will also help steer the project research in the correct direction to achieve maximum impact.

    • 09:00 Project Presentation: 6GTANDEM
      Parisa Aghdam

    • 09:10 Project Presentation: CENTRIC
      Carles Navarro Manchon

    • 09:20 Project Presentation: TERRAMETA
      George Alexandropoulos

    • 09:30 Project Presentation: TIMES
      Luca Sanguinetti

    • 09:40 Project Presentation: 6G-NTN
      Mohamed El Jaafari 

    • 09:50 Project Presentation: 6G-SHINE
      Gilberto Berardinelli

    • 10:00 Project Presentation: ETHER
      Konstantinos Ntontin

    • 10:10 Project Presentation: SUPERIOT
      Marcos Katz

    • 10:20 Q&A and Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by Bernard Barani

    10:30 - 11:00: Networking Coffee and Posters' Visit

    11:00 - 12:30: SESSION 8: Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) Projects Part 4 (Streams B, C, D, Strand B5, C1, D1)
    Chaired by Pavlos Fournogerakis, SNS JU

    The SNS Phase 1 (2022) projects of this session perform holistic research on the 6G system (strand B5), provide the necessary infrastructure, experimentation tools and interfaces to test and validate 6G innovative solutions (strand C) throughout the SNS program lifetime, and realize large-scale trials and pilots to investigate the performance and effect of the 6G solutions in realistic vertical use cases (strand D). These projects are tasked with providing the final end-to-end, holistic definition of the 6G system (from end-user requirements & use cases, to technologies, architecture, interfaces, devices and more) and to create the proper tools and put all previous innovations to the test, for a realistic evaluation of their capabilities. These activities go hand-in-hand with standardization activities as on one hand close monitoring of standardization developments will allow fine-tuning and adjustment of the research and proposed solutions and will allow for the identification of gaps that may be improved and on the other hand it will create opportunities for maximum standardization impact by offering solutions, evaluation data and insights in the correct moment to affect decision making within the SDOs.

    • 11:00 Project Presentation: FIDAL
      Ioannis Markopoulos

    • 11:15 Project Presentation: 6G-SANDBOX
      Apostolis Salkintzis

    • 11:30 Project Presentation: 6G-BRICKS
      Kostas Ramantas

    • 11:45 Project Presentation: HEXA-X II
      Hannu Flinck

    • 12:00 Q&A and Panel Discussion with the session speakers and moderator

    12:30 - 14:00: Networking Lunch and Posters' Visit

    14:00 - 15:30:  SESSION 9: Research into Standards - Lessons Learned, Overcoming Challenges
    Chaired by Riccardo Trivisonno, 6G-IA Pre-Standards Working Group Chair

    During this session, attendees will hear from research projects who have successfully impacted standards.

    • 14:00 The Role of 6G-IA Pre Standards Group
      Riccardo Trivisonno, 6G-IA Pre-Standards Working Group Chair

    • 14:15 Project Presentation: HEXA-X I
      Hannu Flinck

    • 14:30 Project Presentation: 5G-CLARITY
      Mir Ghoraishi

    • 14:45 Overview of TERAFLOW H2020 Project - the journey from an EU Research Project to Standards Activity
      Ricard Vilalta, ETSI Open Source Group TeraFlowSDN Chair (ETSI OSG TFS)

    • 15:00 Q&A and Panel Discussion with the session speakers, moderated by Riccardo Trivisonno

    15:30 - 16:00: SESSION 10: Conclusions, Guidance for Researchers, Projects, Academics, Standards Makers and Next Steps

    • Rui L. Aguiar, Steering Board Chair, NetworldEurope
    • Bernard Barani, Deputy Head of Unit, DG CONNECT, European Commission
    • Diego Lopez, ETSI ISG PDL Chair, ETSI ISG NFV NOC Chair
    • David Boswarthick, Director NET, ETSI

    16:00: End of the ETSI Research Conference 2023

Venue:

ETSI Headquarters
650 Route des Lucioles
06560 Valbonne - Sophia Antipolis
FRANCE

Tel: +33 4 92 94 42 00

Information about the venue, travel, visa, local transports, accommodation is available here.

Members of the Programme Committee:

  • Rui L. Aguiar, Steering Board Chair, NetworldEurope
  • Bernard Barani, Deputy Head of Unit, DG CONNECT, European Commission
  • David Boswarthick, Director NET (New Technology Department), ETSI
  • Carlos Lopez Rodriguez, Policy Officer, DG CONNECT, European Commission
  • Diego Lopez, ETSI ISG PDL Chair, ETSI ISG NFV NOC Chair
  • Markus Mueck, Programme Committee Chair, ETSI Board Vice Chair, ETSI Board RISE Chair
  • Kostas Trichias, 6G-IA
  • Riccardo Trivisonno, 6G-IA Pre-Standards Working Group Chair
  • Colin Willcock, 6G-IA Board Chair

Event attendees had the opportunity to visit the following posters representing some of the SNSJU Projects during the networking coffee and lunch breaks. 

Information on the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) Projects is available here.

  1. 5G-STARDUST
    Presented by Mohamed El Jaafari

  2. CONFIDENTIAL6G
    Presented by Nenad Gligoric

  3. EINSTEIN6G / DETERMINISTIC6G
    Presented by Dhruvin Patel

  4. HORSE
    Presented by Fabrizio Granelli

  5. TERRAMETA
    Presented by George Alexandropoulos

  6. TIMES
    Presented by Luca Sanguinetti

  7. VERGE
    Presented by Oriol Sallent

  8. DESIRE6G
    Presented by Chrysa Papagianni

  9. IMAGINE-B5G
    Presented by Rui L. Aguiar

  10. 6Green
    Presented by Raffaele Bolla

  11. Hexa-X I and II
    Presented by Hannu Flinck

  12. HS BOOSTER
    Presented by Nicholas Ferguson

Rui Aguiar IMG 8386 1024x867Rui Luis Aguiar - Instituto de Telecomunicações/NetworldEurope
Rui L. Aguiar (born 1967) received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 2001 from the University of Aveiro, where he is currently a Full Professor. He was the founder of the ATNOG research group, an advanced telecommunication research group at the Universidade de Aveiro and is currently co-coordinating a research line in Instituto de Telecomunicações, on the area of Networks and Services. He has been serving as Steering Board Chair of NetworldEurope, the European ETP representing the telecommunications community, engaged in the discussions of the future European R&D workprogrames for telecommunications, and is a Senior Research Associate at Cambridge University. He has been previously been associated with Carnegie Mellon University and the Universidade de Uberlandia, has been an advisory for the portuguese Secretaria de Estado das Comunicações and member of the task force for 5G cybersecurity. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Senior Member of IEEE, and a member of ACM. As further community engagement, he has served as Technical and General (co)Chair of several conferences (ICNS, ICT, ISCC, Mobiarch, Monami, NTMS, etc). He is a regular keynote speaker in the future of mobile communications and digital society, with dozens of talks across the whole world. He is an associated editor of Wiley’s Emerging Telecommunication Technologies and Springers’ Wireless Networks. He has more than 500 papers published.

Bernard Barani Bernard Barani at Levi 427x424Bernard Barani - European Commission DG CONNECT  - Deputy Head of Unit "Future Connectivity Systems"
Bernard Barani joined the European Commission (EC) in 1994 after 11 years as Communication engineer in industry and with ESA. In the EC, he has been steering EU wireless R&I for more than 20 years. He currently leads the definition and implementation with industry of the European R&I programme “Smart Networks and Services (6G)” covering the 2021-2027 time frame. Main field of responsibilities covers strategic R&D planning and implementation for beyond 5G/6G systems, standardisation, international cooperation, demonstration and pilot programmes.
He is vice chairman of the Steering committee of the EUCNC conference, the showcasing event for telecom research sponsored by the EU. He has an engineering degree from the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne” and is also a Fellow of WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum).

David Boswarthick Headshot Copy 412x507David Boswarthick - ETSI
David Boswarthick is currently the Director of New Technologies in ETSI, where he is responsible for tracking technology trends and evolutions as well as capturing ICT research & development activities that are ripe for standardization.
He devotes himself to new business / technology development through the creation of strong links and enablers towards the R&D community, academia, National, EU, global research projects and the creation of new or augmented standards groups in ETSI.
David has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, which includes over 23 years’ working in ICT standardization supporting both 3GPP and ETSI Technical and strategic groups.

HakimaChaouchiHakima Chaouchi - Full Professor and Scientific Project officer, French High Education and research.
6G and future networks, Cloud and Cybersecurity Scientific Advisor at the Research and Innovation Strategy Service/French of High Education, Research Ministry-MESR in the sector SSRI/ A3 in charge of national accademic research programs devlopment of Cybersecurity, Cloud and 5G/6G. She is Full Professor at Telecom Sud Paris, Institut Mines Telecom since 2005 with extensive research experience in wireless and mobile communications and Internet of Things. She is active in standardisation bodies as IETF, and in different focus groups at the ITU-T, the most recent one is the focus group on Data processing and management as a chair-woman, and focus group on Environmental Efficiency for Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies, and some study groups such as the SG 13 on future networks in charge of the first guidelines for the 6G requirements and standardisation. roadmap. 

Gavin Craik - ETSI
Gavin Craik, Senior Technical Content Officer
Gavin has been with ETSI since 1989 and has a broad career covering different aspects but is currently the Senior Technical Content Officer in ETSI dealing with the Education and Awareness dossier. ETSI gives “education about standardization” and more specifically ICT standardization a high level of importance and has made a textbook available along with a set of slides which are available for use. It is also a priority to maintain ETSI in a leadership role in the field of education about standardization.

Walter Featherstone Walter Featherstone 768x1024Walter Featherstone - ETSI ISG MEC vice chair/WG DECODE chair
Standards Technologist at Apple, with over 20 years’ experience in the mobile telecommunications industry during which standardization and research have been a central theme. Elected as Vice-Chair of ETSI ISG MEC in 2021 and in Deployment and Ecosystem Development WG Chair in 2019. He has been an active contributor to the ISG since 2016, leading the group’s OpenAPI work as rapporteur and appointed as Technical Manager with a focus on architecting for open source in 2017. Prior to joining Apple, he worked for Samsung R&D Institute UK and before that VIAVI Solutions. He also previously worked at Motorola Mobility during Google’s ownership, Nokia Networks and Motorola Solutions. He gained his PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Leeds, specializing in Super Resolution Direction Finding. Walter is a chartered member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and is the IET Swindon Local Network Chair.

 

Nicholas FergusonNicholas Ferguson - COMMpla
Nicholas is a Senior Project Manager at COMMpla and Trust-IT. He works closely with business and research communities around the globe, supporting them in their outreach efforts. From a standardisation perspective, Nicholas coordinates the European Standardisation Booster ""HSbooster.eu"" which provides expert support to R&I projects on the topic of standardisation. He has several years of experience in mapping the cybersecurity Research & Innovation landscape, coordinating the cyberwatching.eu project. He now leads activities in the new Cybersecurity Community activity funded by the EC. Finally, Nicholas leads the dissemination modules for the European Commission’s Horizon Results Booster for Trust-IT, having previously coordinated the EC’s Common Dissemination Booster.

Pavlos Fournogerakis Pavlos Fournogerakis SNS 1024x1008Pavlos Fournogerakis - Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU)
Pavlos Fournogerakis is a Program Officer in Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU). His responsibilities include Horizon Europe programme implementation, contribution to research and policy activities in the area of connectivity/6G. From 2012 to 2022 he held various positions in the CONNECT Directorate General of the European Commission and in the Research Executive Agency, where he was involved in the implementation of the 5G Public Private Partnership and cybersecurity programmes, research strategy and policy development in the areas of 5G and future networks, IoT and telecom/network security. Prior to joining the European Commission, he has occupied several telecom engineering and project management positions in the Greek public sector, industry and academia. He holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Master of Business Administration, both from National Technical University of Athens (NTUA).

Thomas Haustein Thomas Haustein PicThomas Haustein - Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
Thomas Haustein received the Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.) degree in mobile communications from the University of Technology Berlin, Germany, in 2006. In 1997, he was with the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), Berlin, where he worked on wireless infrared systems and radio communications with multiple antennas and OFDM. He focused on real-time algorithms for baseband processing and advanced multiuser resource allocation. From 2006 till 2008, he was with Nokia Siemens Networks, where he conducted research for 4G. Since 2009 he is heading the Wireless Communications Department at Fraunhofer HHI focussing on 5G and Industrial Wireless. Since 2015 he is actively participating in 3GPP standardization advocating technology contributions for full duplex, millimeter wave communication and new use cases like Vehicular Communications and Industry 4.0. He has published more than 50 papers in scientific journals and conferences and holds more than 100 patents. 

Marcos Katz KATZ MARCOS 736x736Marcos Katz - University of Oulu, Finland
Marcos Katz is a professor at the Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland, since 2009. He has also worked at VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland (2005-2009), Samsung Electronics Korea (2003-2005) and at different R&D positions in Nokia, Finland (1987-2002). He received his MSEE and Dr. Tech degrees from University of Oulu, Finland in 1995 and 2002, respectively. Prof. Katz is a member of the 6G Flagship research program, and his current research interests include optical wireless communications, sustainable connectivity approaches for 6G as well as open 6G architectures.

Tom Kirkham TK 225x225Tom Kirkham - Innovate UK
Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new / innovative products and services. I provided this support to the domain of telecommunications and digital connectivity in the role as Innovation lead for Future Network Technologies. Having worked on European research projects from Framework 5 to Horizon 2020 I have a good knowledge of the European research and standards ecosystem. As part of the AI and Data Economy team at InnovateUK I am keen to support the convergence of Cloud and AI technologies within the telecommunications domain.

Thomas Krner Kuerner Thomas 768x1024Thomas Kürner - TU Braunschweig
Thomas Kürner (Fellow IEEE) received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1990, and his Dr.-Ing. degree in 1993, both from University of Karlsruhe (Germany). From 1990 to 1994 he was with the Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE) at the University of Karlsruhe working on wave propagation modelling, radio channel characterization and radio network planning. From 1994 to 2003, he was with the radio network planning department at the headquarters of the cellular operator E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co KG, Düsseldorf. Since 2003 he is Full University Professor for Mobile Radio Systems at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Currently he is chairing the IEEE 802.15 Standing Committee THz and ETSI ISG THz. He was also the chair of IEEE P802.15 TG 3d and was the project coordinator of the H2020-EU-Japan project ThoR. He is currently Spokesman of the German DFG-Research Unit FOR 2863 Meteracom (“Metrology for THz Communications”).

Louise Lancaster headshot APril 2019 1024x683Louise Lancaster - UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Louise is Head of Wireless Infrastructure Policy at DCMS, including leading on 6G strategy. Louise joined DCMS in 2017, initially working on the development of the UK Government's 5G Testbeds & Trials Programme, before moving on to tackle barriers to network deployment and leading on spectrum policy.
Prior to joining DCMS, Louise spent more than twenty years in the telecoms industry, working for both fibre and wireless providers in a variety of legal, regulatory and policy roles."

Carlos Lpez Rodrguez Carlos1 982x1024Carlos López Rodríguez - European Commission
Carlos is a Policy Officer at the European Commission, working on horizontal coordination of ICT standardisation. He focuses on enabling stronger links between R&I and standardisation, on international cooperation for ICT standards, on the liaison with different SDOs and on the development of EU policies supporting the digital and green transformations. Before joining the Commission, he worked as a research engineer developing digital twins for aerospace and automotive applications. He holds MEng and PhD degrees in civil engineering from Universidade da Coruña (Spain).

Diego R. Lopez - Telefonica I+D
Dr Diego R. Lopez joined Telefonica I+D in 2011 as a Senior Technology Expert, and is currently in charge of the Technology Exploration activities within the GCTIO Unit. Before joining Telefónica he spent some years in the academic sector, dedicated to research on network services, and was appointed member of the High-Level Expert Group on Scientific Data Infrastructures by the European Commission.
Diego is currently focused on applied research in network infrastructures, with a special emphasis on virtualization, data-driven management, new architectures, security, and quantum communications. Diego is an ETSI Fellow and chairs the ETSI ISGs ZSM (on network automation) and the NOC of ETSI ISG NFV.
Apart from this, Diego is a more than acceptable Iberian ham carver, and extremely fond of seeking and enjoying comics, and good discussions on any (in)appropriate matter.
More can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr2lopez/

Markus Meuck Mueck Markus 03 696x1024Markus Mueck - ETSI BOARD RISE (and Intel)
Dr. Markus Mueck received the Dipl.-Ing. and ing. dipl. degrees from the University of Stuttgart, Germany and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST), Paris, France respectively in 1999. In 2006, he received the Doctorate degree of ENST in Communications. Dr. Mueck is a Principal Engineer with Intel Deutschland, Munich, Germany and an Engineering Director leading Intel Germany’s Standardization organization; he acts as Vice-Chair of the ETSI Board, Chair of the ETSI OCG AI Committee overseeing ETSI’s AI/ML activities, member of the Board of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), he is member of the ETSI Delegation to 3GPP PCG/OP and Adj. Professor of University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He is leading the Hexa-X Working Package on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Fernando Rico Ros RICO FERNANDO 1024x768Fernando Rico Ríos - CDTI - Ministry for Science and Innovation
Fernando Rico Ríos is the current Spanish delegate in Horizon Europe’s cluster 4 committee (Digital, Industry and Space) and in the States Representative Group of the Joint Technology Initiative Smart Networks and Services. He has been involved for 20 years in European Research and Innovation Programs linked to digital technologies while holding different responsibilities at CDTI, the Innovation Agency of the Ministry for Science and Innovation of Spain.
Formerly, he worked as a systems and software engineer at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs (now Nokia) in Spain, the UK and the US, focused on system design, software development, testing and support to worldwide field deployments, product and sales management on intelligent network platforms and services.
Fernando holds a MSc degree in Telecommunication Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and a BSc degree in Economics (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia)."

Luis Jorge Romero LJR waist size 1 757x1024Luis Jorge ROMERO - ETSI
Luis Jorge Romero, Director General of ETSI, has 30 years of experience in the telecommunications sector.
At ETSI he has initiated a global standardization partnership for Machine to Machine communications, oneM2M. He has overseen the rapid development of ETSI’s Industry Specification Groups accelerating market penetration of new technologies and has enabled the first Open Source group in ETSI.
Luis Jorge has also successfully positioned the institute to take a leading role in 5G standardization through the 3GPP global partnership project and through initiatives such as ETSI’s Multi-access Edge Computing, Millimetre Wave Transmission and Network Functions Virtualization groups. He is now driving the implementation of the ETSI Strategy, an ambitious plan to prepare the institute for the future.
Previously he has held diverse Director positions in Spain, Morocco and Mexico, predominantly with Telefonica. As Global Director for International Roaming and Standards, and Director of Innovation and Standards, he oversaw Telefonica's participation in global standardization activities, and participated directly in the work of the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance and in the GSM Association (GSMA). Before joining ETSI in July 2011, he held the position of Director General of Innosoft and was also a partner and board member of the Madrid-based Innology Ventures.

Hans SchottenHans Schotten - 6G Platform Germany and University of Kaiserslautern
Hans Schotten is full professor and director of the chair for Wireless Communication and Navigation of the University of Kaiserslautern. He is also a scientific director and member of the management board of the German Research Center for Artifical Intelligence (DFKI) where he heads the department for Intelligent Networks. Hans Schotten is coordinator of the Open6GHub and the 6G Platform Germany, the umbrella organization of the German 6G program. Before joining academia, he has held industry positions in Ericsson and Qualcomm. Since 2018, he is the chairman of the German information technology society ITG and member of the supervisory board of the German VDE. His research interest are in mobile and industrial communications, network security, and AI. Hans Schotten received his Diploma and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the RWTH Aachen University in 1990 and 1997, respectively.

Arman Shojaeifard Arman Shojaeifard 800x800Arman Shojaeifard - InterDigital
Dr Arman Shojaeifard has extensive experience in research, development, and standardization of radio transmission technologies and architectures. He is currently an R&I Senior Manager at InterDigital, responsible for the radio interface R&D at the Future Wireless Europe lab. He also currently serves as the Chair of the ETSI Industry Specification Group on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (ISG RIS). Prior to InterDigital, he was a Principal Researcher and 3GPP RAN1 WG Delegate at British Telecommunications plc. He received his PhD degree in Wireless Communications from King’s College London in 2012.

Peter Stuckmann Peter Stuckmann picture 1003x1024Peter Stcukmann - European Commission
Head of Unit and Deputy Director – Future Networks, European Commission
Peter is Head of Unit and Deputy Director for Future Networks in DG CONNECT, where he is managing the Commission's policy on 5G communication systems and the related research and innovation programme.
In 2021 he has been appointed Interim Executive Director of the newly established Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking, responsible to manage its office and implement its work programme until its autonomy.
Before his appointment to Head of Unit he was Head of Sector ""Spectrum Policy"", was coordinating the 2015 Digital Single Market Strategy, the 2012 Roaming Regulation, and the EU R&D programme leading to the 4G mobile communications standards.
Before joining the European Commission in 2004 he has occupied several engineering and management positions in industry, academia and start-ups. He holds engineering and doctoral degrees from RWTH Aachen University, Germany and is author of the text book “The GSM Evolution” (Wiley 2003).

Gergely Tardos TARDOS GERGELY 675x900Gergely Tardos - Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission
Gergely Tardos is an EU and national public policy specialist, with over fifteen years’ experience in policy design, currently specialised in policy development around the interface of R&I and standardisation. He is a policy officer in the Unit for Valorisation Policies and IPR at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission. Before his current position he worked in a variety of areas in DG RTD, such as innovation and regulation or the European Innovation Council. Before joining the Commission in 2014 he worked in the different positions in the Hungarian administration in the domain of competitiveness, SME policy and R&I. In 2011 he chaired the Council Working Party for Competitiveness and Growth. He holds an MSc in economics and international relations.

Christian Toche TOCHE CHRISTIAN 717x1024Christian Toche - Huawei Technologies
Mr. Christian Toche has more than 30 years' experience in the Information and Communication Technologies industry. He has joined Huawei Technologies in 2006 and has been in charge of European Wireless Standards activity until 2017. He is now in charge of the ETSI/3GPP overall strategy and industry relationships for Huawei. Christian has been involved in 3GPP from the start and has held various leadership positions in 3GPP over the last 20 years. Christian has been member of the ETSI Board since 2017, and since then has been leading the activities related to the ETR (ETSI Technology Radar).

 

Kostas Trichias KTrichias Headshot5 194x247Konstantinos (Kostas) Trichias - 6G-IA
Mr. Konstantinos Trichias M.Sc. (male) received a Dipl.-Ing degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 2008 and his M.Sc. degree in Electrical/Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Twente, The Netherlands, in 2011. He specializes on next-generation heterogeneous wireless and mobile networks (B5G/6G), as well as the integration and smooth interoperability of these technologies with novel networking paradigms such as ITS/V2X and IoT, targeting the successful integration of multiple vertical industries (smart energy / cities / industry 4.0, automotive, etc.) into the B5G/6G ecosystem. He has participated in several international (incl. FP7/H2020/HE/CEF) R&I projects from multiple positions (Coordinator, Technical manager, WP leader) and has served as a 3GPP RAN1 & RAN2 delegate on behalf of KPN/TNO, with a portfolio of multiple patent applications and scientific publications. He is currently serving as a Senior Researcher / Project manager at the 6G Industry Association (6G-IA).

Riccardo Trivisonno trivi 3179924 smallRiccardo Trivisonno - Huawei Technologies
Riccardo Trivisonno (Senior Member, IEEE) joined Huawei Technologies in 2011 and is currently serving as Head of Network Architecture – Research and Standardisation – for the Advanced Wireless Technologies Laboratory, at Munich Research Center. He has been Chairman of 6G-IA Pre-standardization WG since 2020 and Board Member of One6G Association since its foundation, in 2021. Over the past ten years, he and his team strongly contributed to the definition and the standardisation of 5G network architecture and technologies for 3GPP Releases 15, 16 and 17 – in the areas of architecture modularization, network slicing, network analytics and QoS for verticals, filing ~100 Standard Essential Patent applications. His team has been focusing on 6G enabling technologies since 2020. He received his Ph.D and M.Sc. degrees in telecommunications engineering from the University of Bologna in 2005 and 2000, respectively.

Ricard Vilalta Ricard Vilalta 800x950Ricard Vilalta - CTTC
Ricard Vilalta (Girona, 1983) graduated in telecommunications engineering in 2007 and received a Ph.D. degree in telecommunications in 2013, both from UPC, Spain. Ricard Vilalta joined CTTC in 2010, and he is a senior researcher in the Packet Optical Networks and Service Research Unit. He is an active contributor in several standardization bodies such as ONF, ETSI, and IETF (CCAMP, TEAS). He is Chair of ETSI OSG TeraFlowSDN (TFS).
He has been involved in several international, EU, national and industrial research projects. Moreover, he has been WP leader in 5GPPP 5GTANGO and INSPIRE-5Gplus. Currently, he is Project Coordinator of 5GPPP TeraFlow project.
He has negotiated and lead many industrial projects related to standards collaborations, IPR generation and demonstrations at mayor events. He has also authored several book chapters, and more than 50 journals, 160 conference papers, +20 invited talks in most significant conferences, 4 US and 2 European patent.

Paul Wijngaard 20180709 094130320 iOS 711x925Paul Wijngaard - TNO
Paul Wijngaard is senior partnership manager at TNO (Dutch research institute for allied Science) and responsible for orchestrating innovations in Public Private Partnerships working with Telecom Network Operators and other Dutch ecosystem partners to drive innovations. Before working at TNO Paul holds various Senior commercial management positions at technology vendors like Nokia and Network Operators like KPN, Verizon and VodafoneZiggo.
Paul is Board Member of the Dutch 6G Future Network Services foundation. In joint cooperation between the Ministry of Economic affairs, TNO, the University of Eindhoven and Delft and various other partners. Together they have established a consortium to submit a proposal to the Dutch Growth Fund at the end of January 2023 to establish a € 271 million National 6G R&D program for a period of 6 year.

Colin Willcock Colin Frierndly last 722x1024Colin Willcock - 6G-IA
Colin is currently the chairman of the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) governing board (formally known as 5G Infrastructure Association). He is also the chairman of the European Smart Networks and Services Joint undertaking (SNS-JU) governing board. He has detailed knowledge and experience of the telecommunications industry having worked directly or indirectly with many of the major players over a 30-year period. The roles have included software developer, technical consultant, technical marketing, standardization and management. In addition to line manager roles, he has participated extensively in standardization activities at ETSI, ITU-T and 3GPP, including instrumental work in creating and developing the TTCN-3 testing language. Colin has also been very active in the European research ecosystem, including leading a number of award winning European projects such as TT-Medal, D-MINT and SEMAFOUR. Colin is currently head of Research Alliances at Nokia.

Presentations made during the event are available in PDF format here.

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