Smart Networks and Services International and European Cooperation Ecosystem

Project Information

SNS ICE

Grant agreement ID: 101095841

DOI

10.3030/101095841

Project closed

EC signature date 18 November 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 30 April 2025

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 2 066 312,50

EU contribution

€ 1 941 225,00

Coordinated by

6G SMART NETWORKS AND SERVICES INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SNS ICE (Smart Networks and Services International and European Cooperation Ecosystem)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The SNS ICE project is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) assuming the role of the SNS JU ambassador to the rest of the world by presenting, leveraging, and positioning the SNS JU activities and achievements in major European and global fora. The project's work aims to maintain the European momentum and leadership in 6G ecosystem and to ensure that European and Global collaboration structures and mechanisms are established, fostering liaisons with major relevant initiatives. SNS ICE plans to accomplish this significant role through 3 key objectives:
i) Establishing relationships and creating a framework for dialogues and cooperation
ii) Promoting SNS activities and achievements and identifying potential target areas
iii) Targeting consensus building and planning for future steps of the SNS

To accomplish these ambitious objectives, the SNS ICE project has directly interacted with the SNS JU R&I projects, absorbing and processing their results and formulating the relevant insights into targeted messages for European, global and vertical audiences. Moreover, the SNS ICE project has analysed the global and European 6G landscapes, the respective requirements of various key stakeholders as well as relevant standardization roadmaps and timelines, and presented the resulting insights to the SNS community assisting in the maximization of the impact of their solutions. Some of the most important outcomes of the SNS ICE project that stand to maximize the overall SNS impact are:
- Constituency building in Europe and establishment of dialogues, stakeholder support, definition of future R&I actions.
- Establishing dialogues with Peer Partnerships and associations and organization of dedicated workshops to ensure relevance and synergies in both directions.
- Increasing the engagement of diverse vertical sectors to better integrate their individual requirements.
- Creation of a global 6G ecosystem engaging relevant initiatives and key actors from the EU and other regions/countries, working towards the development of 6G synergies with other countries and regions.
- Preparation of interoperability between Europe and the rest of the world, contributing towards the creation of a single global 6G standard.
- A mapping of the European 6G KPI to the 6G indicators of the other global regions and global consensus building on 6G KPIs.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As SNS ICE is a CSA project, it has no relevant scientific / technical achievements. The project's work focuses on promoting the SNS JU in European, global and vertical fora and assisting the bi-directional flow of information between the SNS community and the rest of the world. As such some of the most notable achievements of SNS ICE are:
• EU stakeholders Alignment on 6G Use Case prioritization & contribution to 3GPP SA1: SNS ICE led the effort to align EU stakeholders & present a common EU front at the 3GPP SA1 WS in May 2024. The project collected and aligned views from SNS projects, national Initiatives the SNS JU office & SB/TB/WGs and it assisted in the presentation of the common 6G Use Case priorities to the 3GPP SA1 WS. Unique impact achieved towards a single global standard from EU, as 5/6 UCs became a part of the official 3GPP TR22.870.•

• Global, European & Vertical 6G landscape analysis: SNS ICE has performed extensive in-depth surveys, to identify the main trends, priorities, current work and vision on 6G of all key stakeholders and performed comparative studies (gap analysis) with the work of SNS JU. This effort led to strong collaborations & synergies with other like minded stakehodlers, while it also served as a main source of information for the creation of the follow-up SNS JU Work-Programmes. These studies have highlighted the commonalitis among different global regions and acted as footwork towards the creation of a single global 6G standard

• The Vertical Engagement Tracker: This collaborative tool was developed to systematically map and monitor SNS JU use cases and their relation to relevant vertical sectors. The tool maps SNS JU R&I projects’ use cases and relevant associations, providing a blueprint for vertical engagement. SNS ICE has created, updated and populated the Vertical Engagement Tracker with 283 vertical Use Cases addressed by 59 SNS JU call 1 and Call 2 projects, while the tool remains as a legacy to the SNS community, to be further up by follow-up projects.

• Targeted Stakeholder Recommendations: SNS ICE partners have perfomred a critical analysis extracting significant insights based on multiple levels (Global, EU, Vertical), based on the projects work and interactions. This has led to targeted recommendations towards key stakeholders & suggestions for the way forward (roadmap), which were ublished in the form of Policy Papers.

• Events Organization and Participation: As SNS ICE is the ambassador of the SNS JU tasked with the bidirectional flow of information between the SNS JU and the rest of the world, it has organized and participated in 47 events including workshops, conferences, symposia and more. Additionally, SNS ICE partners participated in focused industry and academia online workshops and webinars throughout the project duration, facilitating the exchange of views among stakeholders. SNS ICE partners also heavily promoted the SNS JU results via podcasts, videos, publications, newsletters, info-booths and more. In total, the SNS ICE physical and online events and dissemination material had a total reach of more than 40000 people.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This does not apply to SNS ICE, as it is a CSA project.

SNS ICE Key Outcomes