European Union unveils €8m 6G smart networks security project

University College Dublin (UCD) has revealed it will lead the €8m Shield-6G project, in another step forward for the European Union’s (EU’s) leading research and innovation funding initiative.

Tasked by the European Commission with establishing the foundational security, reliability and resilience guidelines for 6G networks, Shield-6G is essentially an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cyber threat intelligence platform for 6G networks that aims to shift the paradigm from basic operational network reliability to an “unprecedented” standard of systemic resilience.

The proposed architecture will set out to address the critical priority of reliable service operation by pioneering an AI-native, privacy-preserving and energy-aware platform.

Tailored to 6G semantics, the platform combines automated zero-touch security orchestration with privacy-preserving analytics – such as federated learning, secure multi-party computation and differential privacy. In addition, Shield-6G will look to empower multi-stakeholder networks to share intelligence and self-heal against cascading vulnerabilities without ever moving raw, sensitive data.

A major strategic award that could have significantly positive implications for the European network technology sectors, Shield-6G was the sole awardee under the highly competitive Horizon Europe Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking call.

Horizon Europe is the EU’s research and innovation funding initiative, with a budget of €95.5bn. Partners in the project are said to be able to gain access to “extensive” experience running and contributing to a wide range of European research, innovation and training projects.

The 6G research teams are aiming to support project innovation and effectiveness from concept to completion using proven expertise fostering industrial growth and reacting to global challenges that span many ICT themes and verticals. These include mobility, Industry 4.0, health, energy, climate change and civil security.

In practice, Shield-6G comprises a multi-disciplinary ecosystem of 19 international partners combining academic research institutions, multinational industrial giants and highly specialised small and medium-sized enterprises. The consortium is led by associate professor Madhusanka Liyanage, director of UCD NetsLab, and an expert in secure 5G and 6G networks, AI-enabled cyber security, XAI, and blockchain-based trust mechanisms.

“6G will be far more than the next step in mobile connectivity; it will form the intelligent digital nervous system of future society, connecting people, industries, critical infrastructure and autonomous systems,” he said. “Through Shield-6G, we are working to ensure that security, trust and resilience are embedded at the very foundation of this future … Shield-6G will enable future networks to anticipate, detect and recover from cyber threats intelligently, efficiently and in real time.”

Pascal Bisson, a global head of advanced studies at consortium partner Thales and project technical manager for Shield-6G, added: “[This] is an important step towards building secure, resilient and trustworthy 6G infrastructures. By bringing together cyber threat intelligence, AI-native security and automated response capabilities, the project will help address the complex security challenges of future networks.”

In what is said to reflect the project’s strategic commercial focus, UCD spin-out MBP Network Technology has secured a central role in the consortium. Founded in 2024, MBP recently secured funding to bridge the gap between academic innovation and commercial deployment. In the project, MBP is tasked with driving dissemination, exploitation and industry uptake, while developing edge-focused services for energy-efficient AI optimisation and intelligent intrusion detection and prevention.

Bartlomiej Siniarski, from UCD School of Computer Science and MBP principal investigator in Shield-6G, said: “Through Shield-6G, MBP aims to translate cutting-edge 6G research into practical, trustworthy and resource-efficient security solutions for telecom operators, critical infrastructure providers and industrial IoT [internet of things] deployments.”