Acknowledging the role of standards, especially in the context of emerging technologies and technologies of the future and the need to collaborate and work in partnership with different types of organizations around the world, COAI, the apex industry association representing leading Telecom, Internet, Technology and Digital Services companies and ETSI, a leading standardization organization for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) standards fulfilling European and global market needs announced to come together once again to work and collaborate on areas of mutual interest.

As part of this collaboration, Seconded European Standardization Expert (SESEI) local representative of ETSI will be working closely with COAI through this MoU to strengthen their relationship and foster a closer co-operation on common agenda items between them and promote ETSI-India cooperation on standards related issues.

The ETSI Industry Specification Group working on IPv6 (ISG IP6) has been extended until December 2020 in order to complete an IPv6-based vehicular networking report and a report on IPv6 security, cybersecurity and privacy.

The ETSI ISG IP6 has already released 7 Group Reports that cover very sensitive areas for the deployment of IPv6. They address 6TiSCH interoperability test specifications, IPv6-based 5G mobile wireless internet deployment, the deployment of IPv6-based SDN and NFV, IPv6-based industrial internet leveraging 6TiSCH technology, the deployment of IPv6-based Internet of Things, the generic migration steps from IPv4 to IPv6 and the IPv6 deployment in the enterprise.

IPv6 was developed to address IPv4 address exhaustion in some parts of the world and enable new internet services with improved end to end security. With the Internet of Things and the growing number of connected devices round the world, IPv6 becomes a necessity.

The ETSI Technical Committee Smart BAN has published ETSI TS 103 327, a standard for Smart Body Area Networks. It establishes standardized service and application interfaces and facilitators, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and infrastructure for interoperability management and offers secure interaction and access to any SmartBAN data or entities. The resulting SmartBAN reference architecture is a global and integrated IoT reference architecture, oneM2M and Multi-Agent-based. The architecture is provided with cross-functional components for allowing non SmartBAN enabled environments to interoperate with SmartBAN and addresses network, syntactic, informational and semantic interoperability.

SmartBAN uses a set of low-power embedded devices, mainly sensors, wearables or actuators, to collect and monitor vital data of a human being and their environment, but not exclusively. This ETSI specification will enable, for instance, each patient coming to an emergency room to have their medical history already available, which should lead to an intelligent and accurate intervention.

Recognising its ongoing efforts to accelerate mass adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) through standardisation, oneM2M – the global standards body for IoT – has been awarded the Top IoT Standards Body of the Year at the seventh Annual Compass Intelligence Awards.

Voted on by more than 40 industry-leading press, editors, journalists, and thought leaders, the awards celebrate the outstanding contributions and latest innovations made in the rapidly growing tech market, including in Mobile & Wireless, IoT and Emerging Tech. As part of the IoT section, oneM2M was selected as the top recognised IoT organisation focused on IoT standards, specification development and testing.

For more information on oneM2M’s current work, visit: www.oneM2M.org

Following recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and the challenges identified by the EU Commission creating a need for standardization, the CEN-CENELEC/BTWG 6 “ICT Standardization policy” has proposed the creation of a Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence.

Challenges identified in the European Commission’s Communication ‘Artificial Intelligence for Europe’, COM(2018) 237, refer to the deployment, interoperability, scalability, societal acceptability/ concerns, safety and liability of AI, thus creating a need for standardization. The CEN-CENELEC Focus Group on AI is the starting point to support the identification of specific European Standardization needs. It will also address big data in order to mirror the standardization work at international level.

The European Commission has announced the launch of "OPENQKD" a pilot project that will install a test quantum communication infrastructure in several European countries, was launched. It will boost the security of critical applications in the fields of telecommunications, health care, electricity supply and government services.

The project OPENQKD will aim to bring about a change in the way we see, understand and use quantum communication. Its main focus is to create and test a communication network infrastructure with a built-in quantum element, using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a ultra-secure form of encryption that allows data to be transmitted with a very high level of security.

The updated Horizon 2020 Work Programme provides €47 million to kick-start the large-scale research initiative on future battery technologies previously announced in the Commission Strategic Action Plan for Batteries.

At the dawn of a new, connected and green era — represented by autonomous vehicles, smart cities, smart grids based on renewable energy sources, drone aircraft and robotic devices — reliable and safe batteries with ultra-high performance are becoming essential.

The Cross Cutting part of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme adopted by the European Commission on 2 July allocates €42 million to kick-start a large-scale research initiative on future battery technologies.

With a world-class community of scientists and a strong research infrastructure, Europe has an important potential in leading technological advancements on Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is therefore essential that the best research teams in Europe join forces to tackle major scientific and technological challenges, hampering the deployment of AI-based solutions.

The call articulates in two actions:

1. Research and Innovation Action to mobilise the best researchers into networks of excellence centres that will reach a critical mass on key AI topics.
2. Coordination and Support Action to foster exchange between the selected projects, and other relevant initiatives. 

These actions are expected to create synergies with the industrial sector and foster an ecosystem of R&D resources, expertise and infrastructure (in areas such as HPC, robotics equipment, IoT infrastructure). 

The European Commission has just launched the pilot phase of the ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI, as the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence released its policy recommendations.

As of today, organisations can test the assessment list for trustworthy artificial intelligence, developed by a group of 52 independent experts on behalf of the Commission, and see how robust it is in practice. Over 300 organisations have already expressed interest in doing so since the group released its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI in April this year. An online survey has been created to gather feedback on the assessment list and will be open until 1 December 2019. Best practice examples for assessing the trustworthiness of AI can also be shared through the European AI Alliance.

As part of the next long-term EU budget - the Multiannual Financial Framework - the Commission has proposed the Digital Europe programme, the EU’s programme focused on building the strategic digital capacities of the EU and on facilitating the wide deployment of digital technologies, to be used by Europe's citizens and businesses. With a planned overall budget of €9.2 billion, it will shape and support the digital transformation of Europe’s society and economy.

The programme will boost investments in supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society. Its goal is to improve Europe's competitiveness in the global digital economy and increase its technological autonomy.