PIONEERS-6G: Platform and Device Innovations for Energy-Efficient, Resilient, and Secure 6G IoT Systems

PIONEERS-6G addresses the limitations of today’s 5G for IoT by developing and validating an Omni-IoT platform that is energy efficient, resilient, and secure. Building on lessons from fragmented and roaming-dependent IoT deployments, the project pioneers resilient and autonomous connectivity that unifies terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, ensuring service continuity even in harsh environments such as underground or underwater. It advances intelligent and energy-efficient devices through adaptive, multi-mode operation and energy harvesting, and enhances situational awareness via integrated sensing, positioning, and communication. At the architectural level, PIONEERS-6G transforms the current service-based model into an AI-native orchestration framework with causal optimisation, embedding zero-trust security and sustainability principles.

These innovations will be validated through demonstrations in Industrial, Underground, Underwater, and Global IoT scenarios, showcasing improvements in areas such as latency, coverage, and energy efficiency, as well as areas such as resilience, trust, and sustainability. By combining advanced device, RAN, and core network research with real-world proofs-of-concept, PIONEERS-6G aims to lay the foundation for a sustainable and globally scalable 6G IoT ecosystem.

PIONEERS‑6G is coordinated by Karlstad University and brings together collaboration partners from Spain, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Greece through Telefónica Innovación Digital, NEC Laboratories Europe, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, RINICOM Limited, MULINI SRL, and Envolve Entrepreneurship. The project is funded under the European Union’s Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) and will run for three years.