EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the "Reliable Services Operation" Call (HORIZON-JU-SNS-2025-01-STREAM-B-04-02)

1. Single Market Access (450+ million consumers)

• Pan-European 6G roll-out sandbox – Prototypes developed under the grant can be validated simultaneously in multiple Member States, shortening time-to-market for cross-border services (e.g. autonomous mobility corridors, tele-medicine).

• Demand aggregation – A common EU approach to time-sensitive, low-latency services creates a homogeneous customer base large enough to justify CAPEX in specialised hardware (edge accelerators, AI chips) that individual national markets could not sustain.

• EU public‐procurement leverage – Successful PoCs become eligible for inclusion in joint cross-border 5G/6G corridor calls (CEF-Digital) and forthcoming "Gigabit Recommendation" deployment projects, multiplying sales channels.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory multi-stakeholder consortia (RIA) encourage telecom vendors, vertical industries (automotive, health, energy), SMEs and research institutes from at least 3 countries to co-design “reliable-by-design” reference architectures.

• Shared living labs – Leverage EU testbeds (e.g. 6G-Sandbox, European Open Science Cloud) to trial self-healing and proactive-defence mechanisms under real roaming scenarios, producing datasets compliant with the call’s open-repository clause.

• Talent mobility – Marie-Skłodowska-Curie fellows and Erasmus+ doctoral networks can be seconded into the project, lowering HR costs and fostering a pan-EU skills pipeline in secure AI for networks.

3. Alignment with Core EU Policies

• Digital Decade/Path to the Digital Decade – Contributes to the 2030 target of at least one European leader in 6G by developing zero-trust service orchestration.

• European Green Deal & Fit-for-55 – Energy-aware deployment algorithms directly support the 35 % energy-efficiency KPI for telecoms; outcomes can feed into upcoming Eco-design Regulation for network equipment.

• EU Cybersecurity Strategy & NIS2 Directive – Automation in security operations and CTI platforms address obligations for essential entities; outputs can accelerate ENISA certification schemes for 6G.

• AI Act conformity – Built-in mechanisms for “secure AI” and transparency reports de-risk future compliance, giving first-mover advantage.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Once-only conformity testing – Hardware/ software validated against harmonised EN standards (ETSI, CENELEC) can circulate freely, saving up to 30 % certification costs.

• Article 22(5) strategic autonomy clause – EU-level restriction on high-risk suppliers creates a trusted market space; beneficiaries can position themselves as European alternatives.

• GDPR & Data Act readiness – Pan-EU auditing interfaces facilitate lawful cross-border data flows, mitigating fragmentation risks.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Synergy with Key Digital Technologies (KDT JU) & Chips Act pilot lines – Hardware reliability modules can be co-fabricated via shared pilot lines, reducing NRE costs.

• European DIH network – Digital Innovation Hubs provide local test-facilities and SME onboarding, widening project impact to less-represented regions.

• European IP Helpdesk & EEN – Support for freedom-to-operate analyses and licensing, ensuring exploitation plans meet HEU impact expectations.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage Opportunities

• Cascade funding – Project can embed open calls (FTTE) to fund 3rd-party SMEs working on niche reliability components, expanding reach.

• Complementarity with CEF-Digital, DEP & ESA ARTES – Results can be up-scaled via infrastructure deployment or satellite-terrestrial integration grants, enabling 100 % coverage solutions.

• Regional ERDF / REPowerEU alignment – Member States can co-finance local deployments (edge nodes, green data centres) that implement the project’s algorithms, maximising TRL-9 roll-out.

7. Scale & Impact Potential at EU Level

• Trans-European service reliability index – The multi-stakeholder auditing mechanism can evolve into an EU-wide certification label (“Trusted 6G Service”), boosting user adoption.

• Standardisation leadership – Coordinated contributions to 3GPP, ETSI ISG ENI, and ISO/IEC JTC 1 give Europe agenda-setting power, a key SNS Joint Undertaking KPI.

• Economic multiplier – Conservative modelling shows €1 of SNS RIA funding crowds-in €5 of private investment; EU-wide deployment could unlock €8–10 bn in value creation by 2030.

8. Unique Strategic Value of Operating at EU Scale

• Critical mass for zero-trust ecosystems – Only an EU-wide pool of heterogeneous providers offers the diversity required to stress-test “non-trustable provider” methodologies.

• Resilience through redundancy – Cross-border fail-over paths compliant with Euro-IX standards create continental-scale service continuity, unattainable within single Member States.

• Unified voice in global governance – A coordinated EU consortium can shape future ITU-R IMT-2030 requirements, protecting European values (privacy-by-design, energy efficiency) globally.