The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of DIGITAL SME nor constitute the endorsement of the candidate.

DIGITAL SME encourages an open debate around the election of the future Director General of ETSI. Other views and contributions are welcomed and can be shared at standards@digitalsme.eu.

By Jan Ellsberger, ETSI Director General candidate

* ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is one of the three recognised European Standardisation Organisations. Its present Director General’s term of office will expire in June 2024, and in this context new candidates are being sought. The ETSI General Assembly will make the formal appointment on 16^th April 2024. This third-party op-ed is hosted by the European DIGITAL SME Alliance towards the promotion of an open and democratic electoral process, with no intent to pre-empt the work of the selection committee. The views expressed are those of the author only. Other views are welcomed and can be shared at standards@digitalsme.eu.

ETSI has well served the interests of European industry and policy makers – with remarkable success stories such as the globalisation of GSM, the creation of 3GPP, DECT, and Smart Cards. However, one cannot live on old merits. With the ever-changing ICT industry, recent geopolitical developments and last but not least the new EU Standardisation Strategy, ETSI must adapt to the realities of its time to remain relevant and to continue being an integral part of the European Standardisation System. It starts with a new leadership.

From old successes to new challenges

In 1987, the European Commission issued a Green Paper on the Development of the Common Market for Telecommunication Services and Equipment (COM(87) 290 final) which proposed to liberalize and harmonize the telecommunications market within the EU. The Green Paper recognised that the ‘inevitable trend’ towards ‘the convergence of telecommunications, computing, and applications of electronics in general’ called for the rapid creation of common standards at the European level and proposed to establish a new standardisation body based on the cooperation between CEPT and CEN/CENELEC. In response to the proposal, ETSI was established by CEPT in 1988. To enable the rapid development of standards, CEPT decided to allow direct participation of the European industry in the work of ETSI rather than following the CEN/CENELEC model of representation through national delegations headed by the national standards body. Driven by the UK Administration the model was enhanced to allow participation and influence also from non-European stakeholders. It paved the way for the global success of GSM, followed by the creation of 3GPP, oneM2M and the Smart Card Platform to mention a few – which have all well served European interests.

Yet, technological advancements, the role of ICT in the digitalisation of our industries and society, changes in the geopolitical landscape, and e.g. the recent EU Standardisation Strategy, require ETSI to adapt to remain a relevant and integral part of the European Standardisation System. It requires ETSI to invite the participation from additional stakeholders and industry sectors, and to pro-actively work in support of policies and legislation for new enabling technologies and domains, such as e.g. AI, data sharing, and cybersecurity. The recent EU Standardisation Strategy has led to the implementation of governance changes in ETSI, but more work is needed to address other aspects of the strategy – such as finding new ways of involving SMEs and users, education & training, and to strengthen the connection between innovation and standardisation.

Looking ahead

SMEs are of specific importance in that regard. ETSI’s particular industry-led approach can only be considered successful when reflective of the interests of the majority of companies. With SMEs representing 99% of businesses across the European Union, their effective participation in standardisation bodies is crucial in order to attain better standard suitability. SMEs can then develop innovative products and services on the basis of these standardised technologies, and benefit customers downstream. While ETSI has advanced in a positive direction in terms of inclusiveness, further work needs to be completed in the coming years.

Beyond inclusiveness, ETSI needs to further strengthen its leadership on up-to-date industry insights in order to remain at the forefront of technology developments. Over the last 8 months, I have been very active in developing an ambitious program for ETSI. I have so far worked with more than 50 ETSI members across all membership categories and organisational sizes, to develop a program on where to take ETSI in the coming 5 years. The program, which I will continuously update based on changes in the industry ecosystem, currently covers the following key themes:

• Horizontal Standards: ICT systems provide a horizontal platform for the digitalisation of our industries by making use of enabling technologies beyond connectivity such as e.g. AI, data sharing, cybersecurity. Europe and other regions are currently formulating corresponding regulatory frameworks. It calls for a joint effort across different industries to drive global technology alignment and standardisation. ETSI is well positioned to actively contribute to this effort, including taking a pro-active role and work closely with European policy makers in support of related policy objectives.
• International Standards: ETSI is, since long, well established as a platform for global technology alignment which has served European industry and interests well. ETSI should build on its international participation and expand its impact by initiating collaboration with interested parties in for example Middle East and Southeast Asia, in addition to the already established collaboration with the current non-European members. ETSI should also strengthen its collaboration with ISO, IEC and ITU. However, ETSI should ensure that its work is aligned with European values and policy frameworks.
• European Standards: European Standards are growing in importance as an integral tool of the European Single Market. ETSI must fully embrace the EU Standardisation Strategy and strengthen its role in the European Standardisation System through pro-active engagement with European policy makers (EU, EEA, CEPT).
• Innovation: The connection between research and standardisation must be strengthened. The European standardisation strategy emphasises the potential of EU-funded research to valorise innovation projects through standardisation activities and anticipate early standardisation needs. ETSI should continue and strengthen the already established links with research programs to facilitate an easy transfer of key research results into standardisation. This would help guide the ETSI membership in identifying and prioritising standardisation work, and at the same time guide the research community on current industry challenges. This will also strengthen the role of SMEs, since SMEs are among the main contributors to funded research. ETSI has recently taken a step in this direction by initiating collaboration with EU funded 6G research, but the effort should be enhanced to include also other technology areas within the scope of ETSI, such as connected and automated mobility, AI, data sharing, and cyber security.
• ETSI staff: The ETSI secretariat staff is a key asset to the members, and a pre-requisite for the success of ETSI. The staff must be strongly motivated and its competence continuously developed, and the ETSI corporate culture should be characterised by transformation and an agile style of working. This is vital for ETSI’s role as world-class standards producer.
• Environment and Society: ETSI is developing standards used to monitor, mitigate and adapt to climate change. ETSI’s own operations have in themselves an environmental impact and ETSI should systematically integrate sustainability across them. For example, ETSI could offset operational emissions via emission trading schemes, assess and limit its power consumption, provide services estimating delegates’ environmental impact. ETSI’s work has a direct impact on our society and its work should be better publicly known in a transparent way.

Conclusion

My mission is to continue developing this program together with all ETSI members. If ETSI wants to live up to its mission of developing and promoting world-class standards for ICT systems used globally for the benefit of all, change must be initiated. It was with great honour that, 8 months ago, I was contacted by a group of ETSI members to be the initiator of such change by entering the running for next Director General. I look forward to meeting an increasing number of members to collectively discuss how to best prepare and strengthen ETSI for the times ahead.

***

Jan Ellsberger has over 30 years of experience in standardisation, with leading roles across the telecoms, automotive, transportation and manufacturing industries. He has worked to support ETSI throughout his career and has been working directly for ETSI for more than 10 years.

The application process for the first FLUIDOS Open Call is now open with 975.000 EUR available for companies to develop technological extensions to the FLUIDOS edge processing platform and validate its existing functionality through new use cases. You can learn more about the Open Call through our webinar on 17 January 2024.

The project is offering two different types of grants:

1. A Technology Extension Grant, for up to 75.000 EUR. This grant is available to SMEs who can develop new open-source functionalities or extend existing functionality of the FLUIDOS platform. This grant will be awarded to 5 entities.
2. Use Case Grant, for up to 120.000 EUR. This grant is available to SMEs or small consortia (of max 3 entities) to test and validate the FLUIDOS architecture by incorporating their software on the platform or extending its use beyond the traditional domains that the project is working on (environment monitoring, mobility, and healthcare). This grant will be available to 5 entities.

The application process is managed via the DIGITAL SME platform, where more information, including the application template and guidelines for applicants, are available. The Call is open until 29 February 2024.

What is FLUIDOS?

FLUIDOS is a Horizon Europe consortium that is developing the platform to increase the efficiency rate of edge computing (via harnessing the processing power of inherent devices and continuum computing) to bridge the gap between the cloud and edge. More detailed technical information is available via the GitHub and White Paper.

Priority Areas

The project has identified several priority areas that applicants could focus on that will be viewed favorably by the evaluators:

Technology Extension Grants (TEG):

• Privacy-preserving Node Telemetry: algorithms and technologies that can inform customers of activity within the FLUIDOS domain without disclosing sensitive information from the hosting domain (e.g., physical topology), while still allowing customers to infer how their services are performing.
• Extension of the REAR protocol for generic resource negotiation and acquisition, such as VMs from a cloud hyperscaler and/or broader standardisation (e.g., within the GSMa).
• Integration of authorisation/accounting features with the frameworks proposed for GaiaX, (e.g., clearing houses, federated deployments, etc.)
• Exporting data centre information about energy/carbon footprint to enable global energy/carbon-based optimization strategies.

Use Cases Grants (UCG)

• A consumer-oriented integrated management suite for FLUIDOS that exposes a functionally capable UI and API (This shall allow for the complete management of FLUIDOS nodes and domains.)
• Enabling a scalable FLUIDOS-based orchestrator to control and update a large swarm of IoT devices.

How does the Open Call work?

To benefit from the grant, companies must apply via the portal. The application should detail the concept of its use case or technology extension and explain how it is innovative and will improve or extend the performance or functioning of the FLUIDOS platform.

If selected, the successful applicants are offered grants to cover 8 months. 50% of the funding is made available upfront, and the final 50% is paid at the successful conclusion of the sub-project. The grants are expected to begin in April 2024.

FLUIDOS Principles

FLUIDOS is dedicated to the creation of a dynamic, scalable, and secure computing continuum, bridging the gap between edge and cloud computing. Building upon established Operating Systems and orchestration solutions such as Kubernetes, FLUIDOS aims to introduce a new layer of enriched functionality. This layer facilitates resource sharing through innovative advertisement and agreement procedures in the horizontal dimension while adopting hierarchical aggregation of nodes, inspired by the inter-domain routing principles employed on the Internet, to achieve vertical integration.

At the core of FLUIDOS’ vision is intent-based orchestration, which harnesses advanced AI algorithms to optimise costs and energy usage within the continuum. By promoting efficient utilisation of edge resources, FLUIDOS ensures seamless integration of computing power. The adoption of a Zero-Trust paradigm enables FLUIDOS to securely control and access geographically dispersed resources, while Trusted Platform Modules guarantee the safe deployment of applications and services.

FLUIDOS is guided by the following key objectives:

1. Fluidify the Edge and Unify it with the Cloud: FLUIDOS aims to create a borderless, decentralized continuum that effortlessly combines edge and cloud computing. Through automatic, autonomous resource discovery and integration, this approach ensures a cohesive and cohesive computing environment.
2. Move Gravity Outside Data Centers: By fostering a cross-provider, community-based computing, and service fabric, and leveraging open-source software, FLUIDOS reduces the dependency on centralised data centres. This approach encourages a collaborative approach and a more distributed computing landscape.
3. Orchestrate Services and Hyper-Distributed Applications: FLUIDOS endeavours to orchestrate services and hyper-distributed applications seamlessly across multiple devices and domains. Leveraging energy-efficient AI learning algorithms and mobility/behaviour prediction and traffic forecasting training, FLUIDOS ensures optimal performance and resource utilisation.
4. Introduce a Zero-Trust Paradigm: FLUIDOS is committed to establishing a secure and authenticated means of accessing geographically dispersed resources. This Zero-Trust paradigm provides a robust security framework, safeguarding the integrity of the computing continuum.
5. Enable a Multi-Stakeholder Market of Edge Services and Apps: FLUIDOS seeks to nurture the growth of a diverse market for edge services and applications, independent of cloud providers. By fostering European digital autonomy, this approach encourages innovation and diversity within the computing ecosystem.

FLUIDOS Champions

Partners from the FLUIDOS consortium are available to discuss how companies can best apply for the grants, including validating sub-project concepts and technological compatibility. To benefit from this service, you can contact administrative@fluidos.eu to schedule a consultation.

For more information, you can contact James Philpot (j.philpot@digitalsme.eu) or Costanza Pestarino (c.pestarino@digitalsme.eu).

EU decision-makers have signaled that they could reach a final agreement on the AI Regulation (AI Act) this Wednesday, December 6. Ahead of this crucial round of negotiations, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance is calling on EU decision-makers to fully consider the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of the Digital Single Market.

The upcoming round of negotiations in the AI Act was accompanied by a non-paper published by the governments of Germany, France and Italy. The non-paper contains a proposal for the self-regulation of providers of AI foundation models. DIGITAL SME welcomes deregulation for providers of AI foundation models coming from start-ups and medium-sized ICT companies. However, large, dominant foundation model providers should be regulated, as they would otherwise shift the responsibility for compliance to downstream users, especially SMEs.

Big Tech companies that develop very large base models provide developers with ready-made models that they can adapt for the development of new innovative AI products. The associations believe that these providers of base models should have to undergo a third-party conformity assessment to ensure a fair distribution of responsibilities. In this way, the regulation would ensure that the smaller deployers of the foundation models are not burdened with high compliance costs and thus lower the market entry barrier for SMEs. On the other hand, the development of new foundation models from Europe must not be hindered, so that the digital economy, which is characterized by SMEs, is not overregulated.

“Essentially, we should only regulate applications on a risk basis. The basic models on which applications are based should also only be regulated if they dominate the market,” says Dr. Oliver Grün, President of the European DIGITAL SME Alliance.

For such a solution to be effective, the term ‘very large foundation models’ must be precisely defined. Following the approach of the EU Digital Markets Act, it could include three different, complementary quantitative thresholds: a) computing power, b) number of end users, c) number of business users. This definition would not only address regulatory concerns, but also concerns about European innovation capacity. In this way, the EU can find the right balance between safety and innovation.

A precise definition for very large base models should also be combined with a precise definition of high-risk applications in the final text. According to researchers, under the original definition, up to 58% of AI systems could be classified as high-risk and subject to significant compliance requirements. This would have a far-reaching impact on the competitiveness of many innovative SMEs with their own development in the field of AI, which would be forced out of the market as a result.

• DIGITAL SME joins forces with partners to kick off the standICT2026 project supporting ICT experts’ participation in ICT standardisation

• Through the 3-year project’s life-cycle, DIGITAL SME will lead activities to increase Small and Medium Enterprises’ participation in setting and using ICT standards for new technologies and better access to global markets

• The initiative will boost SMEs’ participation in international and European technical committees, thus contributing to EU leadership in standardisation

DIGITAL SME is strengthening engagement in ICT standardisation!

DIGITAL SME joined partners to kick off the standICT2026 project to strengthen SMEs’ participation in leading standards-settings activities for core technologies relevant to their products and services. Through this modus operandi, SMEs’ participation in standardisation will foster positive impact in global competitiveness and alignment with EU’s vision for geopolitical leadership.

SMEs’ engagement in ICT standardisation is crucial for their business operations. DIGITAL SME Secretary-General, Sebastiano Toffaletti, recognises that “the success of digital services, offered by our digital SMEs, depends on robust and open ICT standards, not only for regulatory purposes but also for technology adoption for non-ICT SMEs, struggling in identifying the right tools and avoiding technology lock-in.”

Throughout the project, DIGITAL SME will support ICT experts’ engagement in ICT standardisation priorities and SMEs’ promotion for interoperability, openness of interfaces, access, portability of data, and other priorities identified by the EC Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation.

DIGITAL SME will lead on establishing a mentorship program for new experts, helping them in developing a standardisation expertise via the support of established specialists. This program will be beneficial for SMEs interested in standardisation but which have yet to develop the required capacities. The mentorship program is part of a larger standards academy, facilitating access to resources, including SME tailored guidance. DIGITAL SME will also lead a consultation process to ensure that policy recommendations are aligned with the European Commission’s priorities for ICT standardisation.

Among its several activities, standICT2026 provides fundings to experts to join technical committees of European and international standardisation organisations, with emphasis on increased SMEs’ participation. The project allocates around EUR 3 million over the following three years. Each expert can benefit for up to EUR 60.000 over a total of nine calls.

If you are interested in more updates over the funding calls or news on ICT standardisation, fill in the expression of interest.

DIGITAL SME invites all our members to join our effort in building a wide and vibrant network for collaboration on ICT standardisation and the WG Standards.

The StandICT.eu 2026 project is funded by the European Union under grant agreement no. 101091933

In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance and its members have developed a Digital Opportunities Portal to provide refugees with jobs, trainings, and skills. This platform is freely available for all companies and training providers to contribute by publishing their opportunities.

We strongly condemn the unilateral aggression and express our utmost support and solidarity for Ukraine and its people. They will require long-term support to rebuild their lives and country. Therefore, over the past weeks, we, together with our member associations, have gathered ideas and initiatives from our members to provide our fellow European citizens of Ukraine with means of support. This will allow Ukrainian refugees, as well as anyone else who has left their country for better chances in Europe, to find the relevant offers from ICT employers and training providers.

The Digital Opportunities Portal is available here. Please submit your upskilling, training, and employment opportunities via the portal to support Ukrainians looking for ways to rebuild and continue their livelihoods.

The Digital Opportunities Portal is supported by: