After the extension of the project’s run, our partners took advantage of the extra months to expand 5G-STARDUST’s participation to events, among the other work in progress to reach conclusion. Here’s a brief recap of our tour of events from the tail end of 2025 to February 2026.
The Huawei WINNOW workshop
On November 13, 2025, Prof Alessandro Guidotti, of partner Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), was invited by Huawei Italy to convey a presentation on NTN standardisation evolution from 5G to 5G-Advanced and beyond, which was very well received by a quite diverse audience spanning both industry and academia. The breadth of engagement — including substantive questions from attendees not directly involved in NTN or its standardisation — reflected the growing cross-domain relevance of non-terrestrial networks in the 6G landscape. The event opened concrete opportunities for future collaborations, positioning NTN as a fertile ground for joint industrial and academic research activities.
The Fifth Visions for Future Communications Summit
Guidotti was also present at the Fifth Visions for Future Communications Summit at the end of the month: the event is regularly organised within the NetworldEurope ecosystem, within which Prof Guidotti is chairing the Non-Terrestrial Networks Working Group. The objective, reflected in two different presentations and panel discussions, was to initiate the identification of relevant Research & Innovation areas for the definition of the 2026 Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which will be provided to the EC to draft the content and focus of future funding programmes. The topics presented in the meeting, and the forward-looking concepts reported in the discussions, were once again well received by the audience, further positioning NTN as a structural and fundamental element of today’s and future telecommunications infrastructures.
The one6G “Non-Terrestrial Network for 6G” Open Lecture
January 2026 was closed by the participation of 5G-STARDUST’s Project Coordinator Tomaso de Cola – from German Aerospace Center (DLR) – at this online event organised as part of one6G Association‘s series of Open Lectures revolving around the specific themes explored by their work, which envisions a future where 6G technologies and solutions will allow to unleash the potential of smart connectivity for a secure, resilient, and sustainable development of our economy and society.
In this case, the subject of conversation was “Non-Terrestrial Networks for 6G: Toward Seamless Network Convergence” – perfectly aligning with the scope and aim of our project. As part of the panellists’ line-up, de Cola delivered a presentation entitled “From Ground to Space and Back: the Next Frontier of Edge-Cloud Continuum”, exploring the integration of satellite systems into the edge–cloud continuum, emphasising the role of NTNs in enabling low-latency services and distributed intelligence across terrestrial and space domains.
A lively Q&A session followed all presentations, allowing participants to engage directly with the speakers on technical, regulatory, and deployment-related questions. The discussion underscored both the vast potential and the complexity of achieving seamless TN–NTN integration in 6G. The lecture attracted nearly 270 attendees from across the world, demonstrating a strong global interest in NTN as a cornerstone of 6G and reinforcing the importance of continued interdisciplinary dialogue toward seamless network convergence.
Potentialities of 5G Terrestrial & Non-Terrestrial Networks for European Governmental Users and Services
11 February 2026 saw the return of Prof Guidotti to the stage, at this webinar organised within the 5G-GOVSATCOM project, a Horizon Europe initiative that aims to advance the integration of 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (5G-NTN) into the EU’s GOVSATCOM framework. The main takeaways: Guidotti’s presentation was aimed at reporting the NTN standardisation evolution from 5G to 5G-Advanced and the open Research & Innovation areas that are currently being discussed, at both industrial and academic level, for future 6G TN-NTN integrated systems. The presentation was then followed by a panel discussion in which the major points that were discussed were related to the role that Europe can have for the future of NTN in 6G and what are the major technical, political, and economical gaps that shall be tackled to ensure sovereignty.
The consortium will follow up with a wide representation at Mobile World Congress 2026 – with several partners representing 5G-STARDUST and its work at their showcases there – in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2-5.