International Cooperation Projects

KReATIVE

Kranj’s Resilient Ecosystem for Active Transformation, Innovation, and Visionary Engagement

KReATIVE is a forward-thinking project aimed at transforming Kranj into a climate-neutral city by addressing its urban mobility challenges and fostering sustainable innovation. The project is designed to enhance collaboration across city departments, significantly reduce car dependency and promote eco-friendly transportation. At the heart of KReATIVE is
the development and deployment of digital mobility platforms, such as ride-sharing services and on-demand transport systems, which provide flexible, sustainable alternatives to private vehicle use. KReATIVE emphasizes cross-departmental collaboration within the city’s governance structure. By breaking down silos between municipal departments, the project encourages a unified approach to urban planning and sustainability, ensuring that mobility initiatives align with broader climate neutrality goals. The project’s innovations are not limited to Kranj but are designed to be scalable and replicable across other European cities, particularly those facing similar challenges in their transition to climate-neutrality by 2030. A central feature of KReATIVE is its participatory approach, engaging various stakeholders—citizens, local businesses, city departments, and policymakers—in the design and implementation of sustainable mobility solutions. This involvement fosters a sense of community ownership and encourages behaviour change. The project leverages gamified platforms, where citizens are incentivized through rewards for reducing car use and increasing physical activity, creating a fun and impactful way to promote ecofriendly behaviours. KReATIVE also focuses on testing and implementing car-restrictive measures and temporary traffic regulations. These “living laboratories” generate real-time data and citizen feedback, allowing the city to evaluate the impact of such measures and make informed decisions on long-term implementation. By integrating advanced data-driven algorithms and digital tools, the project enables city planners to continuously monitor and optimize transportation systems, improving efficiency while reducing emissions. Through its focus on citizen engagement, technological innovation, and institutional collaboration, KReATIVE aims to create a resilient, future-oriented urban ecosystem that not only transforms Kranj’s mobility landscape but also serves as a blueprint for other cities seeking to achieve climate-neutrality.

EnerTEF

Common European-scale Energy Artificial Intelligence Federated Testing and Experimentation Facility

EnerTEF responds to the soaring demand for reliable AI products in the evolving energy sector. It pioneers a Common Federated AI Testing and Experimentation Facility to bridge the gap between demand and limited availability of rigorously tested AI products. Aligned with European Commission initiatives, EnerTEF leverages foundational projects like the Common European Energy Data Space and AIoD. Through specialized ‘AI Living Labs,’ EnerTEF fosters collaboration between energy stakeholders and AI developers to create adaptive models that align with evolving energy systems. ‘Bridging Centralized Access’ ensures data privacy and security in federated testing, adhering to EU regulations and addressing ethical concerns. ‘Seamless Federated Integration’ tackles integrating AI technologies across domains, enhancing cross-sector collaboration. ‘Long-term Sustainability and Go-to-Market Strategy’ focuses on bringing AI innovations to market. In a nutshell, EnerTEF’s primary goal is to establish a Common European-scale Energy AI Federated TEF, facilitating extensive adaptation, validation, and upscale of AI tools and services across the energy sector. The project’s network of five primary nodes, complemented by three satellites, ensures a comprehensive approach to testing AI-based technologies in real-world operational environments. This setup contributes to the market uptake of trustworthy AI, ensuring their readiness, accessibility, and applicability to real-world scenarios.

GoToTwin

Advancing Renewable Energy in the Adriatic Ionian Region through the Use of Digital Twins

(2024-2027)

Project ID: IPA-ADRION00406

Acronym: GOTOTWIN

Starting date: 1. 9. 2024

Duration: 36 months

The GoToTwin project addresses the common challenge of accelerating the adoption and integration of renewable energy sources in the Adriatic Ionian region. The project leverages digital twin technology to tackle pressing energy and sustainability issues in the region.

The overall objective of the project is to establish a robust and transnational digital twin framework tailored for renewable energy applications. This framework will enable stakeholders to effectively manage energy systems, optimise resource utilisation, and enhance overall system efficiency. By harnessing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics, stakeholders will be empowered to make well-informed decisions and maximise renewable energy generation.

The main outputs of the project include:

* Development of a digital twin framework for renewable energy systems: This output involves the creation of a robust and adaptable digital twin framework specifically tailored for renewable energy applications in the Adriatic Ionian region. The framework will facilitate the effective management of energy systems, resource optimization, and enhanced system efficiency. The corresponding project activities entail conducting a thorough market assessment in the Adriatic Ionian region. It involves examining the current state of the renewable energy market, assessing technology readiness for digital twin implementation, evaluating legal and policy constraints, and identifying state-of-the-art solutions. Emphasis is placed on open-source options to enhance accessibility and collaboration.

* Transnational integration and testing of four living labs into the digital twin platform and pilot activities focusing on solar, hydro, and wind power: This output encompasses the setup and integration of regional living labs and pilot projects dedicated to exploring the practical application of digital twin technology in renewable energy systems. These labs will provide the essential infrastructure for stakeholders to engage in experimentation and testing. The pilot action will demonstrate the digital twin platform replicability in a transnational perspective within the living lab environment.

* The establishment of the GoToTWIN network: This output involves actively involving stakeholders from various sectors, including government entities, energy companies, local communities, industry associations, and academic institutions. Calls for experiments, thematic working groups, and training programs will facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building among stakeholders.

* Development of a Joint strategy for digital twins on renewable energy in the Adrion to encourage widespread adoption of digital twin solutions for renewable energy: This output focuses on the formulation of a joint strategy aimed at fostering the widespread adoption of digital twin solutions for renewable energy in the Adriatic Ionian region. These strategy will address regulatory barriers, promote favourable policies, and advocate for the utilisation of digital twin technology in renewable energy systems. It provides a shared vision for the future, offering insights into the current state of renewable energy systems, resource management practices, and environmental concerns within the Adriatic-Ionian region.

The project will benefit various regional stakeholders, including government entities, energy companies, local communities, industry associations, academic institutions, transmission system operators, research institutions, start-ups, and technology providers.

The transnational approach is essential because energy challenges transcend national boundaries. By collaborating across borders, the project can leverage diverse expertise and resources to develop innovative solutions that address regional energy needs effectively.

What sets the project apart is its focus on digital twin technology, which offers a novel approach to optimising renewable energy systems. Additionally, the emphasis on stakeholder engagement and policy advocacy ensures the sustainability and widespread adoption of the solutions.

The GoToTWIN project is co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg IPA ADRION programme.

HEDGE-IoT

Holistic Approach towards Empowerment of the DiGitalization of the Energy Ecosystem through adoption of IoT solutions

(H2020, 2024-2027)

HEDGE-IoT proposes a novel Digital Framework which aims to deploy IoT assets at different levels of the energy system (from behind the- meter, up to the TSO level), to add intelligence to the edge and cloud layers through advanced AI/ML tools and bridge the cloud/edge continuum introducing federated applications governed by advanced computational orchestration solutions. The HEDGE-IoT Framework will upgrade the RES-hosting capacity of the energy systems and will unleash a previously untapped flexibility potential. It will increase the resilience of the grid, create new market opportunities and promote advances in IoT standardization, by introducing and managing a plethora of diversified, interoperable energy services over scalable and highly distributed data platforms and infrastructure. The multi-dimensional framework of HEDGE-IoT comprises the following pillars: (a) the Technology Facilitator Pillar will exploit the computational sharing by offloading applications on the grid edge, towards providing a set AI/ML federated learning and swarm computing applications; (b) the Interoperability Pillar, which leverages on leading-edge interoperable architectures, such as the Data Space architectures; (c) the Standardisation Pillar will enable all involved platforms, systems, tools and actors to seamlessly communicate and exchange data in standardized formats using widely used standards, such as SAREF, etc.; (d) the Digital Energy Ecosystem Enabling Pillar will ensure the creation of an ecosystem facilitating the increased integration of RES and characterized by resilience. Liaisons with EU initiatives for IoT and digitalization will be established (e.g., the AIOTI) and the engagement of stakeholders will be ensured by addressing IoT ethics and cultivating trust among end-users, thus promoting inclusivity. Scalability and replicability studies will be performed and connections with innovators and SMEs will be established through the Open Call mechanism of the project.

Based on the data collected by the partners in the scope of the Slovenian pilot and the understanding of the physical reality behind the phenomena, JSI will develop algorithms for real-time assessment and prediction of the state of the assets. To achieve real-time response, the algorithms will be developed for hierarchical execution using edge computing. Our ultimate goal is to deploy the software we developed during DiTeR and Trafoflex projects locally, including local AI-based weather forecast.

UP-SCALE

Urban Pioneers – Systemic Change Amid Liveable Environments

(H2020, 2023-2025)

The Slovenian cities of Kranj, Ljubljana, and Velenje are working on new ways of governing their climate transition – finding common ground for making Pilot City activities in different sectors work more effectively. While Kranj focuses on reducing mobility-related emissions, Ljubljana will center its work on finding uses for industrial and non-industrial (excess) waste heat and Velenje on the consumption of thermal energy in buildings. But as they embark on these different priorities, their collective sights are set on making their responses “more effective, transparent, and responsive.”

As part of “UP-SCALE Urban Pioneers – Systemic Change Amid Livable Environments,” the goal is to find new approaches that can be shared in other communities facing similar challenges. The three cities will each create innovation hubs called one-stop shops to act as repositories for their findings, with Pilot City partners in Ljubljana emphasising the centrality of knowledge sharing to the cities’ plans: “We see the project UP-SCALE as an opportunity not only to start developing our own pathways towards climate neutrality, but also to gain new knowledge and become an inspiration to other Slovenian cities and beyond.”

NANCY

An Artificial Intelligent Aided Unified Network for Secure Beyond 5G Long-Term Evolution

(HE, 2023-2025)

The overall aim of NANCY is to introduce a secure and intelligent architecture for the beyond the fifth generation (B5G) wireless network. Leveraging AI and blockchain, NANCY enables secure and intelligent resource management, flexible networking, and orchestration. In this direction, novel architectures, namely point-to-point (P2P) connectivity for device-to-device connectivity, mesh networking, and relay-based communications, as well as protocols for medium access, mobility management, and resource allocation will be designed. These architectures and protocols will make the most by jointly optimizing the midhaul, and fronthaul. This is expected to enable truly distributed intelligence and transform the network to a low-power computer. Likewise, by following a holistic optimization approach and leveraging the developments in blockchain, NANCY aims at supporting E2E personalized, multi-tenant and perpetual protection.

SiQUID

Slovenian Quantum Communication Infrastructure Demonstration

(DIGITAL, 2023-2025)

SiQUID will implement quantum key distribution (QKD) lSiQUID will implement quantum key distribution (QKD) links between multiple government nodes in Slovenia and a test-bed quantum network between research institutions in Ljubljana for advanced quantum communications protocols. We will coordinate our efforts with public and industrial stakeholders, and we will train key personnel, young researchers and engineers in quantum technology. The first test nodes implemented will be based on our recent first demonstration of QKD links between three European countries (arXiv:2203.11359-paper attached). We will harness directly modulated laser diodes to ensure the phase randomization between adjacent pulse sequences, and we will use a high-assurance random number generator to randomize the choice of the state preparation basis. These improvements promise a higher level of security, a larger range, and a higher key rate. This will form the basis for the implementation of the QKD links between government nodes. To reduce the cost of future QKD networks, SiQUID will investigate the feasibility of cheaper alternatives for the detection nodes by balancing cost against the key rates achievable in metropolitan links. At the same time, we will use superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) to implement high-efficiency links. We will use these to test long-distance links between distant cities in Slovenia, and to nodes close to neighboring countries. Moreover, we will test advanced quantum communication protocols like measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD and the long-distance distribution of entanglement to further increase the security of QKD implementations, and to prepare the ground for a future full-fledged quantum communication network. We are in close contact with QCI initiatives in neighbouring countries to facilitate the harmonisation of the national efforts, and to facilitate future cross-border links and the implementation of the space segment of EuroQCI.

TimeSmart

Timeliness of Information in Smart Grids Networks

( HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF, 2022 – 2025)

TimeSmart project will investigate the applicability of the novel Age of Information metric in smart grid networks. While the metric has become a valuable tool for measuring the system’s performance, its practical value and impact in the real-time system are left unanswered. This project seeks to remedy that by applying the metric to a system in which the timing of collected data, currently measured through jitter or latency, profoundly impacts management and control. The AoI offers a new perspective on how the system should collect and process information, as such decisions are also based on the context of processed information (their semantic nature). In turn, the new approach can offer an innovative way of improving the efficiency of renewable electrical energy supply and electrical loads by taking advantage of the available edge infrastructure. This project aims to adopt the AoI metric in smart grid networks to improve the energy transmission efficiency, achievable through more timely collected information, to save energy.

COST ACTION

COST CA20120 – INTERACT

(2021 – 2025)
Omogočanje inteligentnih radijskih komunikacij za vseobsežne interakcije brez zaznavanja prekinitev/ Intelligence-Enabling Radio Communication for Seamless Inclusive Interactions

Bilateral cooperation

BI-JP/24-26-001P; MISA: Inteligentna uporaba LiDAR

(2024-2026)
This program is designed to promote scientific exchanges between Japan and counterpart countries in accordance with agreements or memoranda of understanding that JSPS has concluded with science-promotion organizations in those countries. The sending country nominates visiting researchers, who are dispatched upon the receiving country’s acceptance. JSPS and its counterpart organizations provide financial assistance for supporting Visiting Researchers’ stays in Japan for the purpose of
conducting research activities.