As the last of Martel’s Horizon 2020 projects conclude in 2024, marking the end of an era for Europe’s flagship research and innovation programme, the transformative impact of this initiative is more evident than ever.
With more than €75 billion invested over seven years, Horizon 2020 significantly contributed to building an EU society and economy rooted in knowledge and innovation[1]. Martel has been at the forefront of this innovation wave, contributing with its multidisciplinary expertise to an impressive number of projects – 36 in total – distributed across the Horizon Europe programme’s diverse portfolio.
Martel’s involvement in Horizon 2020 spanned a diverse range of project types, including Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) – 17 projects, Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs) – 14 projects, and Innovation Actions (IAs) – 5 projects. This diverse range of projects demonstrates Martel’s ability to contribute to cutting-edge research, drive innovation closer to the market, and facilitate coordination and support activities across the European research and innovation landscape.
The 36 projects Martel was involved in spanned a wide range of focus areas, including:
- Advanced communication networks/5G: Martel contributed to several projects aimed at 5G developments within the context of the 5G-PPP initiative, such as Affordable5G, 5G-BLUEPRINT, and 5G-DRIVE. These RIAs focused on developing affordable, harmonised, and high-performance 5G solutions. Martel’s excelled, especially within the context of AFFORDABLE-5G where it has been recognized as a Key Innovator for its work by the European Commission’s Innovation Radar, showcasing our cutting-edge Open Source MANO enhancements for flexible cloud-native service deployments.
- Cloud Computing: Martel has been a prominent technical player in several RIAs, significantly contributing via these projects to the development of the open-source FIWARE technology. Via strategic CSAs, like H-CLOUD and HUB4CLOUD, Martel has also played a key role in helping establish a strong and cohesive European Cloud ecosystem, contributing also to bootstrapping the EUCloudEdgeIoT initiative.
- Internet of Things (IoT): Via projects like U4IoT, NGIoT, EU-IoT, and the EU-China Study on IoT and 5G (all CSAs) Martel has contributed to creating and growing a strong European IoT ecosystem gathering a variety of players across different domains and R&D communities. Martel’s technical team has also played an important role in projects like Arcadian-IoT and TERMINET (both RIAs), working on next-generation IoT technologies.
- Cybersecurity and Privacy: Martel contributed to projects like ASSURED and ARCADIAN-IoT (both RIAs), focusing on trust, security, and privacy management in IoT and systems-of-systems.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data: Martel participated in projects such as KITT4SME and BOOST 4.0, which aimed to enable the uptake of AI by SMEs and leverage big data for enhanced competitiveness in connected smart factories. Martel also participated in WeNet, a Future Emerging Technologies H2020 RIA, that focused on the development of an online platform to empower machine-mediated diversity-aware people interactions, largely deploying AI techniques.
- Next-Generation Internet (NGI): Martel has been involved in several NGI-related projects, such as NGI4ALL, HUB4NGI, Fed4FIRE+ and EASIER, to contribute to the development of a human-centric internet, which is open, inclusive and trustworthy. Martel has also been a key player since the NGI inception to help grow and create a strong community engaging several relevant open source and digital commons initiatives and by directing the NGI Outreach Office.
- Media and Digital Learning: Projects like FLAME, STADIEM and DEL4ALL showcased Martel’s work in media innovation and digital enhanced learning.
- Sustainability: Martel’s commitment to driving innovation for a more sustainable future is exemplified by its involvement in the ChiC project. The project brought together well-experienced partners to harness the collaborative power of ICT networks (networks of people, knowledge, and sensors) to create collective and individual awareness about the multiple sustainability threats facing society at social, environmental, and political levels.
Synergy for success: Martel’s Consulting, Media, and Lab
Martel’s multifaceted expertise is evident in its significant contributions to these numerous Horizon 2020 projects, with its Consulting, Media, and Lab departments playing important roles in driving innovation and facilitating successful project outcomes.
“This synergy of Martel’s Consulting, Media, and Lab departments has been a driving force behind Martel’s success in delivering impactful results across its diverse portfolio of Horizon 2020 projects”, says Dr Monique Calisti, CEO of Martel.
Martel Consulting, known for its proficiency in project management, has been instrumental in coordinating and supporting various initiatives, ensuring smooth operations and effective collaboration among partners. The Consulting department also demonstrated its expertise in managing open calls and fostering collaboration among researchers and innovators across Europe in projects like ORCA, eWINE, Fed4FIREplus, and WeNet.
The Media department showcased its expertise in communication and dissemination activities. This included creating engaging content, managing social media channels, and organizing events to raise awareness about the projects’ objectives and achievements. For example, in the STADIEM project, Martel Media played a key role in promoting startup-driven innovation in European media. Similarly, in the EASIER project, which focused on intelligent automatic sign language translation, Martel Media’s expertise was instrumental in disseminating project results, creating impactful visual content, and engaging with stakeholders through various communication channels. Media’s work in these projects, among others, demonstrates its ability to effectively communicate complex topics, build strong communities, and maximise the visibility and impact of research and innovation initiatives.
Meanwhile, the Martel Lab has been involved in technological advancements, contributing to research in projects like ARCADIAN-IoT, which focused on trust, security, and privacy management in IoT systems, and Affordable5G, where the Lab’s work was recognized by the European Commission’s Innovation Radar.
As Horizon 2020 ends, Martel looks back with pride on its significant contributions to driving innovation across Europe. But this is just the beginning. With the transition to Horizon Europe, Martel is poised for even stronger growth and success, ready to tackle new challenges and push the boundaries of innovation further. Armed with the valuable lessons learned and the strong partnerships forged during Horizon 2020, Martel has embarked on this new chapter, committed to shaping a brighter, more sustainable, and technologically advanced future for Europe.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_461
