Data and AI-driven smart technologies, with an emphasis on (i) the connection between the urban space and the industrial space, (ii) sustainable living and (ii) sustainable industrial production, hold the transformative potential to enhance the sustainability and climate resilience across EU, in private and work spaces. Assuming this, NexTArc is devoted to augmenting the adoption of Trustworthy edge AI and IoT across 3 complementary and interrelated application domains, organised as Use Cases (UC): SLN - Smart, sustainable and Liveable Neighbourhood in Urban Spaces; STI - Smart, sustainable and transparent industrial Spaces; and TEM - Trustworthy and Eco-friendly Multimodal Connectivity of Urban and Industrial Spaces through people and freight mobility, incl. the inter and intra-mobility. Building on this vision, NexTArc aims to promote the cross-fertilization of ideas among a broad spectrum of stakeholders, 38 partners in 10 countries, integrated over a four-fold Innovation Module (IM) approach: i) cyber-resilience on chip; ii) low-power embedded AI; iii) improved computation and dependability covering the high-performance needs; iv) holistic solution stack to enable trustworthy services, which resonate with the EU Chips Act, etc. NexTArc has identified 6 Specific Objectives: 1) Driving adoption of AI while enhancing connectivity preparedness; 2) Targeting a 40% increase in data transmission rates and a 30% reduction in energy use during data processes, while ensuring robust architectural resilience; 3) Fortifying cyber-physical security with an aim for full-compliance with EU’s Chip and Cybersecurity act; 4) Realising open HW/SW to ensure designs that are secure, safe, private, and accountable; 5) Proactively adapting to the dynamic landscape of open-source innovations and key industry standards; 6) Orchestrating 4 IM, unveiling 15 Key Innovations to develop the solutions that are needed for Europe to take the technological lead towards a sustainable society.

Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) is the natural evolution for both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) because they are mutually beneficial. AI increases the value of the IoT through machine learning by transforming the data into useful information, while the IoT increases the value of AI through connectivity and data exchange. Therefore, InSecTT – Intelligent Secure Trustable Things, a pan-European effort with 52 key partners from 12 countries (EU and Turkey), will provide intelligent, secure and trustworthy systems for industrial applications to provide comprehensive cost-efficient solutions of intelligent, end-to-end secure, trustworthy connectivity and interoperability to bring the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence together. InSecTT aims at creating trust in AI-based intelligent systems and solutions as a major part of the AIoT, i.e. moving AI to the edge and making AI and ML based systems trustable, explainable and not just a black box. InSecTT will foster cooperation between big industrial players from various domains, a number of highly innovative SMEs distributed all over Europa and cutting-edge research organisations and university. The project features a big variety of industry-driven use cases embedded into various application domains, i.e. smart infrastructure, building, manufacturing, automotive, aeronautics, railway, urban public transport, maritime as well as health. The demonstration of InSecTT solutions in well-known real-world environments like trains, ports, airports and the health sector will generate huge impact on both high and broad level, going from citizens up to European stakeholders. It will establish the EU as a center of intelligent, secure and trustworthy systems for industrial applications enabled by a strong industry with a strong reputation and an informed society, in order to enable products and services based on AI compliant to European values and “Made in Europe".