6G-REFERENCE will contribute to the European leadership in microelectronic solutions for communication and sensing infrastructure, targeting not only coherent data transmissions but also high-accuracy localization and sensing, thus materializing the connection between physical, chemical, digital, and human worlds. The green transition in 6G-REFERENCE will rely on densified deployments of low-energy distributed nodes, capable of providing, at the same time, enhanced multiuser beamforming schemes for data transmission and accurate sensing. Enabling a densified deployment of distributed radio units, 6G-REFERENCE will contribute to improving the availability in high-density populated areas, ensuring coverage from multiple radio units in every corner. Moreover, it will be achieved in a sustainable manner, from the energy efficiency point of view, including the use of the same integrated circuit hardware for sensing and communications. In addition, we will also directly contribute to SDG 13 on climate actions, by developing environmental chemical sensors in the antenna system hardware to potentially realize virtual environmental quality maps, also applied to secure clean hydrogen energy storage. 6G-REFERENCE will not directly address new business models but will indirectly enable their conception, especially by integrating communications with localization and passive radar sensing, which may definitely boost the creation of new applications and businesses. The ultimate goal of 6G-REFERENCE is to ensure the commercial feasibility of the developed hardware solutions not only by aligning them with current standardization activities and goals, but also by facilitating that the standardization work can be based on the correct knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of the developed hardware.
