€22 million to turn Europe’s 6G research into industrial innovation
Five selected proposals to strengthen Europe’s leadership in AI-native 6G, large-scale experimentation, connected devices and international partnerships.
Riga, 22 October 2026 – At Techritory 2026, the European Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) announced five new proposals aimed at helping European researchers and businesses advance promising technologies from research to large-scale testing and practical applications.
The selected proposals will receive €22 million in funding to address key needs for the next phase of 6G development, including AI-ready data, large-scale experimentation, connected-device ecosystems, international cooperation and stronger exploitation of European research results.
6G-AID, HEMES-6G, EUNICON-6G, EU-INDIA-6G-BRIDGE and SNS IMPACT will deepen collaboration across the European 6G ecosystem, helping to bring promising concepts from the laboratory towards large-scale testing and real-world application. They will bring together leading European industry players, telecom operators, research organisations, universities and innovative SMEs from across Europe.
“For European industry, this means better access to the data, testbeds, technologies and partnerships needed to turn 6G research into products and services. For people, it means the foundations for more secure, reliable and capable connectivity in the years ahead. These proposals are about making sure that Europe helps shape the technologies and standards that will define the future,” said Erzsébet Fitori, Executive Director of the SNS JU.
This announcement comes at a crucial point for Europe’s 6G ambitions. Global competition in next-generation communications has intensified, and Europe must step up efforts to ensure that 6G is designed and developed in line with its priorities: resilience, interoperability, openness, sustainability, cybersecurity and human-centric innovation. During 2026 and 2027, groundwork and studies for 6G standards are taking palce, while the SNS JU programme enters the final phase of its current Horizon Europe framework.
The winning proposals combine Europe’s research excellence with practical impact for a new generation of digital services and infrastructure, which must withstand cyber threats, support secure data handling, and deliver dependable performance for critical applications. Collectively, they will help develop technologies and architectures that embed security, privacy and resilience as foundational features.
Europe’s investments in 6G are intended not only to support domestic innovation, but also to ensure that European research excellence and industrial capabilities shape the future global technology landscape. These five proposals are expected to feed into standards development and strengthen Europe’s voice in the international debate on next-generation communications.
About the Winning Proposals
6G-AID: building the data foundation for AI-native 6G
Artificial intelligence is a central theme in this set of proposals, with nearly 80% of SNS JU projects already integrating AI and machine learning in some form. This reflects the growing importance of AI-native networks in future connectivity systems, as well as the key challenge of networks for AI in the years ahead. 6G-AID will focus on building a European data foundation for AI-powered 6G networks. The project aims to provide a curated collection of high-quality real-world datasets, develop an open-source simulator to create synthetic datasets, confirm their suitability for 6G networks and AI applications, and make them available through a single European data space.
HEMES-6G: a large-scale European 6G experimentation platform
HEMES-6G is intended to serve as a large-scale European environment for 6G experimentation. It will bring together eight testbed sites in six EU countries on a shared testing platform covering AI-native networks, radio and optical networks, edge and cloud, security, and the integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. This reflects the work programme’s emphasis on system-level validation, interoperable and evolvable experimentation platforms and wider access to European testing facilities for researchers, innovators, SMEs and industry.
EUNICON-6G: strengthening Europe’s position in 6G connected devices
EUNICON-6G will address the issue of Europe’s industrial position in connected devices. It will analyse strengths, gaps and dependencies across the value chain and develop recommendations to improve Europe’s competitiveness in global 6G device ecosystems. The project focuses on opportunities in sectors including mobility, industry, energy, infrastructure, health and safety, and aims to help shape a coordinated European roadmap for next-generation connected devices beyond smartphones. This aligns with Europe’s policy goal of reinforcing technological sovereignty, reducing dependencies in critical technologies and strengthening European value chains.
EU-INDIA-6G-BRIDGE: deepening strategic cooperation with India
EU-INDIA-6G-BRIDGE will establish an EU-India coordination hub bringing together stakeholders from research, industry, standardisation, and policy. The project is expected to produce joint roadmaps, support research-to-standardisation links, provide ecosystem intelligence and policy assets, and promote long-term collaboration, including SME engagement. Such cooperation is part of a wider effort to support Europe’s global digital partnerships with like-minded countries while helping shape international 6G standards and governance with common goals to promote secure, trusted and resilient technologies.
SNS IMPACT: maximising programme-wide results
SNS IMPACT is designed to support and facilitate cross-project coordination, stakeholder engagement, dissemination, exploitation and strategic communication of project results, helping maximise programme-level impact and ensuring that project outcomes feed more effectively into standardisation and European policy development.
