NexusForum2025 Summit

AI, Cloud & Sustainability for Europe’s Digital Sovereignty

5-6 November 2025 | AREA42, Brussels

AI, Cloud & Sustainability for

Europe’s Digital Sovereignty

As 2025 marks a decisive turning point in Europe’s digital transformation journey, we face an unprecedented convergence of Artificial Intelligence, cloud-edge infrastructure, and sustainability. These are no longer separate priorities, but deeply interconnected forces shaping our society, economic future, environmental resilience, and the political autonomy of the European Union and its Member States.

With Europe currently controlling less than 10% of its critical digital infrastructure while facing ambitious 2030 climate targets, NexusForum2025 aims to bring together experts in Artificial Intelligence, cloud & edge technologies, sustainable innovation, and digital sovereignty to create a unique space for exploring high-impact collaborations between the European research and industry ecosystems—from joint technology platforms to policy frameworks and investment strategies.

Artificial Intelligence is driving innovation across sectors, but demands sovereign technologies, significant compute power, strong data governance, and ethical oversight.

Cloud and Edge infrastructures are the backbone of digital Europe—yet the continent still depends heavily on centralised datacentres and on technologies controlled by non-EU entities.

Sustainability must no longer be an optional feature. Green computing and climate-conscious digital infrastructures are essential to meet the targets of the European Green Deal.

Digital sovereignty is about giving Europe the power to shape its technological destiny—from open standards and interoperability to the joint development of European open source software.

NexusForum2025 offers concrete partnership opportunities, actionable insights, and a shared innovation roadmap for advancing Europe’s values-driven technological leadership in Artificial Intelligence along the whole HPC-Cloud-Edge-IoT Continuum.

What to expect at the Summit

NexusForum2025 will offer a unique combination of engaging sessions and contents:

✓ High-level keynotes and interactive panel discussions

✓ Hands-on workshops on digital policy, open standards, and European open source technologies

✓ Showcases of EU-funded research & innovation projects and the real-world use cases they are enabling

✓ Round-tables connecting representatives form public administrations and major industrial players

✓ Opportunities to influence the NexusForum Roadmap by joining its exclusive Working Groups

Launched by the European Commission in 2021 under the direct sponsorship of Commissioner Thierry Breton, the European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud fosters collaboration between EU industry and Member States and helps to define common technology priorities and roadmaps for Europe’s next-generation cloud.

Around 100 of the most innovative companies from 12 EU Member States have joined forces around a new €3B Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure & Services to create a common cloud and edge infrastructure for Europe and carry out its first industrial deployment in a number of strategic sectors.

With a total budget of €95.5 billion, Horizon Europe is the ambitious EU research & innovation framework programme for 2021-2027. Several topics have been targeting Cloud and Edge Computing since 2021, providing funding for a number of on-going projects developing new data and computing technologies.

Agenda

Through a number of expert-led workshops, presentations, and panel discussions, NexusForum2025 will offer a unique opportunity for participants to learn about, and contribute to, strategic EU technological initiatives on AI & Cloud.

5 NOVEMBER 2025

6 NOVEMBER 2025

5 NOVEMBER 2025

08:00 — Registration and Welcome Coffee ☕

0 09:00 — WELCOME SPEECH ⭐ Hanifeh Khayyeri 🇸🇪 RISE

Hanifeh Khayyeri is Vice-President of Computer Science at the Research Institutes of Sweden

09:30 — OPENING KEYNOTE ⭐ Manuel Mateo-Goyet 🇪🇺 European Commission

Manuel Mateo Goyet is the Acting Head of Unit “Cloud & Software” at DG CNECT.

10:00 — Panel Discussion: FIGHTING FOR DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY

What are the new challenges when it comes to make Europe’s digital sovereignty a reality?

Justina Bieliauskaite — Innovation Director, European DIGITAL SME Alliance.
Sachiko Muto — Senior Researcher, RISE & Chair of OpenForum Europe.
Gina Plat — Interim Lead, Open Source Program Office (Ministry of the Interior & Kingdom Relations), Government of the Netherlands.
Enzo Ribagnac — Director for Policy, Governance and Operations, CISPE.
Arthur van der Wees — Managing Director, Arthur’s Legal & Co-Chair of the Cloud-Edge WG (EU Cloud Alliance).

11:00 — Coffee Break ☕

0 11:30 — Interactive Consultation: DEFINING THE "SOVEREIGN CLOUD" CONCEPT

Session moderated by Jordi Guijarro, Principal Technologist for Cloud-Edge Innovation at OpenNebula Systems & Coordinator of Virt8ra.EU.

12:00 — Panel Discussion: BUILDING THE AI CONTINENT

This session will offer a perspective from the different stakeholders involved in the creation of the AI Continent.

Florence Bout — Operations Officer, OpenNebula Systems.
Monique Calisti — CEO, Martel Innovate.
Petra Dalunde — Co-Director of the AI Factory MIMER, RISE.
Stanisław Krzyżanowski — Business Development Manager, CloudFerro.
Alessio Manca — PMO (Villanova Project), Tiscali.

13:00 — Networking Lunch 🥗

0 14:30 — Panel Discussion: A FEDERATED CLOUD FOR EUROPE

This session will explore the challenges and current initiatives to create a European federated cloud:

Enrique Areizaga — Digital Transformation Manager, Tecnalia.
Mauro Brambilla — Chief Operating Officer, Dynamo.
Giuseppe Cafiso — Special Projects Lead (DOME), Engineering.
Leonardo Camiciotti — Executive Director, TOP-IX.
Erik Langius — Senior Integrator & Project Manager (ECOFED), TNO.

15:30 — Coffee Break ☕

0 16:00 — Panel Discussion: SUPPORTING CLOUD INNOVATION FOR AI

This session will focus on how EU member states are supporting the development of technological innovations on AI and cloud through strategic initiatives like the IPCEI Cloud:

Rogier de Boer — Team Leader, Innovation of Digital Technologies Unit (Ministry of Economic Affairs), Government of the Netherlands.
Nena Dokuzov — IPCEI-CIS National Coordinator (Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport), Government of Slovenia.
Alberto P. Martí — VP of Open Source Innovation, OpenNebula Systems & Chair of the Industry Facilitation Group, IPCEI-CIS.
Dominik Wasiluk — Senior Project Manager (Ministry of Digital Affairs), Government of Poland.

17:00 — CLOSING KEYNOTE ⭐ Cristina Caffarra 🇪🇺 EuroStack

Cristina Caffarra is an antitrust expert economist who was Head of European Competition at Charles River Associates for over 20 years – leading large teams and giving expert testimony in Europe and across the world on some of the most high-profile cases of the past two decades. Moving on from consulting, she co-founded the Competition Research Policy Network at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, where she curates and hosts multiple policy discussions. She has been a vocal contributor – speaking and writing extensively – to the global debate on antitrust and regulation of digital markets. She has shaped the European conversation around the role of antitrust as a tool of broader economic policy, by advocating the integration of antitrust and data protection, and encouraging new thinking around how antitrust can contribute to equitable economic growth. She hosts and curates a celebrated annual conference in Brussels on antitrust and the political economy. She is now the lead of the EuroStack Industry Initiative in Europe. She is an Honorary Professor at UCL in London.

17:30 — Networking Session & Cocktail Party 🍷

6 NOVEMBER 2025

0 09:00 — Panel Discussion: NEW IPCEI-CIS REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE

Presentation of the IPCEI-CIS Reference Architecture by the CISERO Project:

Matthias Kuom — Program Manager & CISERO Coordinator, DLR.
Pawel Maslowski — Chief Innovation Officer, Oktawave.
Mauro Renato Boldi — European Project Manager, TIM.
Andreas Schlosser — BTP Cross Projects, SAP.

09:30 — Panel Discussion: FROM PROJECT TO PRODUCT; COMMERCIALISING EU RESEARCH ASSETS

Session organised by the 5GMEC4EU Project:

Jorge Pereira — Principal Scientific Officer, European Commission.
Stefan Schnitter — Managing Partner for Infrastructure & Cloud Transformation, Detecon.
Çağatay Yılmaz — Project Manager, RISE.