Workshop: How advanced communications can support sustainability goals, 21 January 2025

Rationale and Objectives

The Workshop “How advanced communications can support sustainability goals” took place on the morning of the 21st January 2025, jointly organized by NetworldEurope and the Alliance for AI, IoT and Edge Continuum Innovation (AIOTI) and was available online only. The workshop aimed to provide an open information space to share current and future views on “How advanced communications can support sustainability goals” and hopefully empower each one of us with the knowledge, tools and inspiration needed to make sustainable choices that can impact our work, community and the planet. Two different discussion panels were organized, with Panel 1 addressing “Advanced communications contributing to sustainability” and Panel 2 addressing “AI, IoT and Edge Continuum improving the performance of digital society”.
The workshop featured key speakers from industry and academia, representing the views of manufacturers, operators, industry bodies, and research scientists.

This workshop was open to the public and there was no need to register.

The final agenda was as follows:

See the workshop report here

See the presentations here

See the videos here

Workshop moderators and speakers

Prof. Rui L. Aguiar, Chair of the Steering Board of the NetworldEurope European Technology Platform, has been involved in research and strategic research management since 1988, having been involved (in multiple positions) in all European-funded framework programs.   He was involved in the development of the NetworldEurope initiative, and the launch of the 5G-Infrastructure Association PPP, and has led the association before. He has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer on 5G in the last years, and has several hundred papers on communication networks and services. He is also the co-chair of the Networks and Multimedia area at Instituto de Telecomunicações, a Portuguese state-associated laboratory, and a Full Professor at Universidade de Aveiro.

Damir FILIPOVIC For over 25 years, Damir has combined experience in the public and private sectors in technology, research, innovation and regulation. Damir started his career in the Croatian Ministry of Communication. From 2000, he was leading regulatory and wholesale business units in Deutsche Telekom and Telekom Austria Croatian subsidiaries. Damir has founded several startup companies and successfully run them. Since 2008, he has worked in Brussels, first in Telekom Austria, then in DIGITALEUROPE and Samsung, covering research and innovation, standardisation, IP and copyright, trade and customs, digital transformation, privacy and security, accessibility, spectrum and compliance with the EU regulation. Damir founded Creative Intelligence in 2017. Damir holds an MSc in engineering from the University of Zagreb. He is fluent in Croatian, Serbian and English with knowledge of French, German, Spanish and Italian.

Chiara Mazzone is a Programme Officer at the Smart Networks and Services JU (SNS JU), the Joint Undertaking which facilitates and develops European industrial leadership on 5G and 6G. She also coordinates the JU communication activities and serves as the reference point for sustainability topics.
With over 15 years of experience spanning both public and private sectors at local and EU levels, Chiara has developed deep expertise in technology, investment and policy.
In the private sector, she gained hands-on experience in company project management at Vodafone Group and got insights into the latest business, research and technology developments.
During her tenure at the EU Commission, she contributed to shaping EU investments in start-ups and emerging technologies such as Fintech, Blockchain, and 5G. As part of DG CONNECT Telecoms Investment Unit, she contributed in establishing the Connecting Europe Digital Facility and funding 5G deployment in local communities.
Chiara was also part of the EU negotiating team for Resilience and Recovery Funds, focusing on digital reforms and investments. Earlier in her career, she worked with French regional and local authorities, helping universities and businesses secure EU Research & Innovation and ICT funding while leading the Région Sud EU Office. She also supported a Director General in a French local authority and lectured on Administrative Law at Sciences Po Paris, where she earned her degree in EU Affairs, Law, and Economics.

Luis M. Contreras (https://lmcontreras.com/) holds an M.Sc. in Telecommunications from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (1997), an M. Sc. in Telematics jointly from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2010), and a Ph.D. in Telematics from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2021). In 1997 he joined Alcatel Spain taking several positions (R&D, standardization, product development and customer engineering) in both wireless and fixed network fields. In 2006 he joined the network planning department of Orange in Spain taking responsibilities for the IP backbone planning. Between 2002 and 2010 he was also adjunct lecturer at the Telematics Department of the Universidad Carlos III. Since August 2011 he is part of Telefónica Innovación / Telefónica Global CTO, working on scalable networks and their interaction with cloud and distributed services, and participating in several projects (lately PREDICT-6G, DESIRE-6G, 6GREEN, Exigence, FLECON-6G or UNITY-6G). He is an active contributor to different SDOs, such as IETF (co-chairing CCAMP WG), O-RAN, ETSI, etc.

Symeon Papavassiliou is currently a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the National Technical University of Athens and Director of the Network Management and Optimal Design Laboratory (NETMODE) at NTUA. From 1995 to 1999, he was a senior technical staff member at AT&T Laboratories, New Jersey. In August 1999 he joined the ECE Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA, where he was an Associate Professor until 2004. He has an established record of publications in his field of expertise, with more than 450 technical journal and conference published papers. His main research interests lie in the area of computer communication networks, with emphasis on the analysis, optimization, and performance evaluation of mobile and distributed systems, wireless networks, and complex systems. He received the Best Paper Award in IEEE INFOCOM 94, the AT&T Division Recognition and Achievement Award in 1997, the US National Science Foundation Career Award in 2003, the Best Paper Award in IEEE WCNC 2012, the Excellence in Research Grant in Greece in 2012, the Best Paper Awards in ADHOCNETS 2015, ICT 2016, IEEE/IFIP WMNC 2019, IEEE Globecom 2022, as well as the 2019 IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Communications Systems Integration and Modeling best paper award (for his INFOCOM 2019 paper). His research has been recognized and funded by many industry and government international organizations including, European Commission, European Space Agency (ESA), General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) in Greece, National Science Foundation (NSF), US Army, MITRE Corp., Panasonic, Nortrhrop-Grumman, New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology etc. He also served on the board of the Greek National Regulatory Authority on Telecommunications and Posts from 2006 to 2009.

Dr Hanne-Stine Hallingby is an experienced telecommunication market expert who currently works making 5G and 6G a success. We want 5G and 6G to be a driving force digitizing society, spurring new economic growth while addressing sustainability; some of us think this innovation is not only about technology but partnerships and ecosystems. Hallingby is now a senior research scientist engaged in EU and Telenor R&I projects on 5G and 6G pilots, use cases, business customer requirements, and business models; more particularly, she applies her field of expertise to explore the 5G and 6G ecosystem hurdles and enablers for growth. In Telenor R&I, she is also filling the role as Director for Use Cases and Solutions. This has led to a role as a chair for the 6G-IA sub-working group on “Business Validation, Models, and Ecosystems”. Prior to her current position as researcher, she worked for 15 years in Telenor as a project leader and consultant with business development and change processes. She has an Industrial PhD in Innovation studies. She has published articles in journals such as Telematics and Informatics, MIS Quarterly Executive, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Communications Magazine and also attended conferences such as TPRC, International Telecommunication Society, and World Open Innovation Conference. Her passion is with the applications of technology to the best of firms, humans, and society.

Dr. Ovidiu Vermesan is Chief Scientist at SINTEF Digital, Oslo, where he is involved in applied research on future edge autonomous intelligent systems and edge AI, wireless sensing devices and networks, smart systems integration, industrial immersive technologies, microelectronics design of integrated systems (analogue and mixed signal), IIoT. He holds a PhD in Microelectronics and a Master of International Business (MIB). His applied research activities focus on advancing edge AI processing, embedded electronics, wireless and smart sensing technologies, and the convergence of these technologies and applying the developments to applications such as green mobility, energy, buildings, autonomous systems, electric connected, autonomous, and shared vehicles, and industrial manufacturing. He is currently the coordinator of the Chips JU Edge AI Technologies for Optimised Performance Embedded Processing (EdgeAI) project. He is the Chair of the WG Research of the AIOTI – Alliance for AI, IoT and Edge Continuum Innovation and member of the steering board.

Sylvie Couronné is as senior engineer working at the Fraunhofer IIS in the Positioning and Networks Division, Nuremberg, Germany.
She previously led the development and implementation of RF ICs for digital broadcasting and satellite navigation applications.
Her activities centered then on the development of new concepts and specifications of embedded localization systems to support the implementation of context aware services for different applications like Industrial IoT.
Since few years, her core research work is focused on resource efficient ICT as on sustainability issues of ICT technologies and solutions in industrial applications as in 5G/6G.
Moreover, she has the role of Research Manager as of IP Manager in the Positioning and Networks Division of Fraunhofer IIS.
Since 2024 she also serves as co-chair of the AIOTI Green ICT Enablement working group.

Luis Pérez-Freire holds a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering since 2008. He has more than 20 years of experience participating in R&D projects, many of them in direct cooperation with the industry, taking cutting-edge ICT technologies to the market.
Since 2015 Luis is leading Gradiant, a private R&D center with more than 200 engineers specialized on cybersecurity, connectivity and AI technologies. With a strong business and impact-oriented focus, Gradiant incubates start-ups and creates innovative solutions based on deep tech which help companies to create competitive advantages in markets like telecommunications, industry, security, health, or agriculture.
Luis is Board member of several associations promoting innovation in the industry and society.  Luis is member of the Board of AIOTI since 2015, and has been chairing the working group on digital agriculture since then. He is also co-founder and member of the Board of DATAlife since 2018, a Digital Innovation Hub to accelerate the digital transformation of strategic economy sectors in Galicia, Spain.

Antonio Kung is co-founder and member of the executive board of Trialog, supporting Trialog on strategy, innovation and knowledge management. Co-founder of Trialog, he was CTO until 2018, and CEO until 2024. He has been active since 2015 on standardisation as well as on standardisation strategy. Antonio has initiated the development of more than twenty standards on architecture, interoperability, conformity in domains such as the internet of things, digital twins, security and privacy or artificial intelligence. Antonio graduated from Harvard university and École Centrale de Paris.