OC#7 2026

The main priorities of my fellowship are to support the development of two European standards for AI systems, Risk Management and Cybersecurity, which will enable organisations to manage risks and address cybersecurity concerns in alignment with the AI Act.

The s-X-AIPI project endeavour is to research, develop, test, and validate a bespoke suite of trustworthy self-X AI  technologies tailored for process industries. This initiative aims to bridge the gap between AI capabilities and traditional automation processes, ensuring that AI tools are both accessible and effective across various industrial applications.

With the support of this fellowship, I tackle specific bias detection and mitigation requirements with accompanying illustrative example within CEN/CLC/JTC21 WG3 "Concepts, measures and requirements for managing bias in AI systems" standard that are aligned/harmonised with relevant EU AI Act legislation.

The adoption of AI in telecommunications systems is expected to foster the investments made not only in connectivity itself, but also in digital infrastructures.

Local Digital Twins will be a fundamental building block for CitiVerse. It will also play a crucial role for anyone in the public sector who wants to fully utilize the usage of AI.
Today, cities, regions and countries all over the world are building Local Digital Twins using various tools and approaches. Game engines, CAD tools, GIS, AR/VR/XR tools, Urban Digital Platforms, CIM and other visualisation tools are used. Thus a wide spread of technologies and standards. 
Interoperability for Local Digital Twins (LTD) is crucial. They need to fit horizontally and vertically. Horizontally is to put a LDT of one city next to a LDT of another city and make them align. Vertically, by example, a LDT produced by a city must fit LDT from public transportation and LDT by the energy company for the same geographical area, etc. 

European CitiVerse will be built upon Local Digital Twins. If separate Local Digital Twins in Europe don't fit together it will be impossible to create a seamless CitiVerse. It will also be difficult with interoperability between LDT:s. The LDT also needs interoperability versus dataspaces and IoT. For a LDT:s to be useful for officials and others, LDT:s need interoperability with the business operating systems used by officials on a daily basis. 

In this sense, in the framework of my fellowship, my JWG has sent a survey to many major LDT projects around the world, and we are now gathering the results and statistics.  The result will be a gap analysis and a technical report, which will enable advice to all relevant major SDO:s on how to develop or change their standards to fit better together. 

The priority aims to support the development of European and international standards for DLT/blockchain technologies to ensure transparency in sustainable financing. This contribution brings together the financial, reporting and new technologies to address the gaps between these three sectors.
The challenge for sustainable finance is to minimise the risk of 'greenwashing’ and provide better reporting for the Sustainability sector, ESG investment and Net Zero climate goals and new EU Reporting regulations.
It includes standards development to combine blockchain/DLT Use Cases reflecting sustainable solutions, while the sustainable finance standards cover Terminology and reporting guidelines, and the financial services consider digital currencies and tokenisation.

This contribution aligns with the European Standardisation initiatives, including the effective delivery of ESG investment strategy and Net Zero climate goals, along with the new EU Climate and Sustainable Reporting legislation in 2024 /2025.
 

The objective of this contribution was to design a taxonomy of decentralised identifier and identity terms for further integration into ISO/TC307 works developed by AHG5 and JWG4.
My fellowship was key to address the gap between worldwide blockchain and DLT standards in the fields of identifier and identity management, especially between ISO/TC307, ITU-T and W3C while including some European-led reference documents (i.e. EBSI, eSSIF-Lab and INATBA glossaries).
The main challenge was reaching consensus between ISO/TC307 working groups (especially AHG5 and JWG4) to support the revision of ISO/TS 23258:2021 in order to integrate a taxonomy of decentralised identifier and identity terms.

With this fellowship, I significantly contribute to the ICT Standards landscape by addressing the lack of standardised guidelines for processing Personal Identifiable Information (PII) in blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) systems. Approving the New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) for “Guidelines on processing PII using blockchain and DLT” establishes a crucial foundation for privacy-preserving, GDPR-compliant blockchain applications.
By leading the creation of CEN/CENELEC JTC19 WG3, I am ensuring the development of a harmonised European approach to blockchain privacy, reducing fragmentation and fostering interoperability. These efforts align blockchain implementations with European regulations, consumer protection laws, and data governance principles.
 

My fellowship focuses on standardizing Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for sustainable asset management, addressing gaps in digital asset representation, regulatory clarity, and ESG alignment. It supports innovation, transparency, and interoperability in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), in line with EU priorities.
Current NFT-based RWA systems lack harmonised frameworks, causing fragmentation in asset tracking, legal recognition, and compliance. This hinders adoption across supply chains, carbon markets, and IP management. My project proposes a cross-industry standard to ensure interoperability, regulatory alignment, and lifecycle transparency.
In this sense, the there are two major priorities for this action, including: 
Standardized Multi-Asset Tokenization that enables NFT-based tracking of physical, environmental, and intangible assets. It also enhances lifecycle transparency, supports the circular economy, and ensures blockchain interoperability.
Digital Product Passport (DPP) to align NFTs with DPP for end-to-end traceability, compliance, and ESG reporting.This strengthens supply chain transparency and EU circular economy goals.

The key Challenges related to my activity are: 
Regulatory Uncertainty: Lack of clear NFT standards impedes legal and policy alignment. This initiative ensures conformity with EU law and ISO.
Adoption Barriers: Fragmented governance limits integration. Standardisation enhances technical and regulatory trust.
Sustainability Concerns: Energy-intensive DLTs are problematic. This activity promotes efficient models aligned with the Green Deal.

Consequently, this project positions Europe as a leader in NFT standardisation, fostering secure, compliant, and sustainable digital ecosystems.
 

In this fellowship the original objective is to start to prepare a NWI to address the age approriate topic and start the standard development. The aim is to improve the benefits and reduce the risks in the digital world for young users up to the age of 18. The solution is to adapt the content delivered by online products and services according to the age of users. Moreover, the process requires establishing the age/capacity of users, including age verification and age estimation. The CWA does NOT define age estimation and verification processes (Out of scope) but requires to select an appropriate age assurance tools/approach in conformity with established standards and official guidance.

 It aims to develop technical specifications and standards to efficiently manage terminology work ensuring seamless information exchange, minimizing misunderstandings, and enhancing both human-human and human-AI interactions.

The gaps that this fellowship enables me to address has been to dedicate solid time first for the ECMA meetings that I convened, but also for the community background work that needs support and attention. The priorities are to users the creation of the core specifications for ECMA approval, which has been challenging because of the influx of attention on PURL for SBOM and CRA compliance. The challenge from PURL getting increased attention meant needing to cater to new contributors and supporting long debates and addressing objections, in particular on topics like character encoding.