OC#2 2026

The development of ICT standards for QT is crucial for establishing harmonised approaches and interoperability within the EU, thus ensuring the successful deployment of large-scale quantum networks. 

In this fellowship, I work on the analysis of the Digital Twins (DT) landscape with a focus on the urban domain. We focused on two priority gaps that, once solved, may enable the modelling of complex DT through the exclusive use of the SAREF suite to enhance the interoperable communication between entities composing a DT; and to enable the modelling of time series to represent how a DT evolves through time.

Explainability is critical for ensuring trustworthiness of state-of-the-art AI. Standardising explainability will build consensus on best practices methods that allow developers to build more high-performing systems, provide enhanced end-user experience, and facilitate oversight.

In the transversal aspects in data spaces, there is a lack of guidance on the integration of security and privacy, and it is crucial to develop this further as it is a barrier for compliance with regulation (e.g. CRA, AI act). 

Improving security is one of the most, if not the most, important priorities for the evolution and future development of the IoT.

This fellowship allows me to take part to all meetings concerning Cybersecurity, Privacy and Artificial Intelligence (even most are very early or very late in the day, as per rules for scheduling in SDO's), whilst being able to keep delivering standard based consulting especially for SMEs which need to comply for ISO 27001 certifications mostly. 

My work supports the development of smart energy grids, allowing to integrate a high share of renewable energy sources and to support new usages such as transports electrification (e-mobility). 

This standardisation project will boost the creation of a certification system for biometric solutions to be used in different scenarios. One of the first scenarios to be addressed is the remote identification of citizens using videoconference tools, i.e., using facial recognition with the users’ own personal devices (either computers or mobile devices).

My fellowship significantly contributes to the ICT standards landscape by advancing the Biometric System-on-Card (BSoC) standards, particularly within the ISO/IEC 17839 series.

The number of devices in these areas vastly outnumbers the number of human beings and this area is almost unprotected, which could have detrimental effects on our society. It is the hope that the project could be one way to enable a broader cybersecurity protection.

Work on ICT readiness is essential for organisations facing increasing risks and threats in an unstable environment when they rely more and more on ICT, supplying them guidance to gain more resilience to infrastructures and organisations.

With AI’s evolution, a growing need for AI ethicists to address ethical, social, and psychological queries is evident. One gap, however, lies in the absence of standardised competencies for these professionals, causing hesitation among organisations to embrace AI ethics.