The 5th plenary meeting of the EMPYREAN project took place on 1–2 July 2025 in Ghent, Belgium, graciously hosted by our partners at EV ILVO. All project partners were present, contributing to two days of highly productive and in-depth technical discussions. The consortium reviewed the initial release of the EMPYREAN platform, showcasing excellent progress across the board and laying the foundation for upcoming capabilities. Key highlights of the meeting included: Finalization and validation of the first integrated EMPYREAN release. Live integration demos, highlighting early platform functionalities and cross-WP collaboration. Deep technical sessions focused on Work Packages 3, 4, and 5, addressing system architecture, deployment, and intelligent orchestration. This milestone marks a significant step forward in our journey to deliver an open, flexible, and intelligent edge-cloud platform for the next-generation IoT-edge-cloud continuum. Stay tuned — even more integration results and platform enhancements are coming in the next phase!

We are excited to announce that the EMPYREAN Project presented its latest research paper, titled “Risk-Aware Resource Allocation in Edge Computing Using Stochastic Forecasting”, at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 8-12 June 2025,  held in Montreal, Canada. This work represents a significant step toward enabling resilient, data-driven decision-making in cloud-edge continuum environments, one of the core objectives of the EMPYREAN platform.

The EMPYREAN Project was proud to participate in the Special Panel Session on the Cognitive Computing Continuum at the International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE), held on 16 June 2025 in Valencia, Spain. This high-impact session was organized by the ENACT Horizon project and brought together a group of forward-looking initiatives—INTEND, SWARMCHESTRATE, MYRTUS, HYPERAI, COGNETS, and EMPYREAN—all working at the forefront of edge–cloud continuum technologies. Together, these projects are shaping the future of distributed intelligence by addressing the challenges of deploying reliable, secure, and adaptive services across heterogeneous infrastructures, from the edge to the cloud. EMPYREAN’s contribution to the session emphasized our efforts in enabling dynamic orchestration, secure resource federation, and time-critical computing for next-generation applications across the continuum. Stay tuned for more updates as EMPYREAN continues to collaborate and innovate at the intersection of cloud, edge, and intelligent systems.

Join us for a webinar exploring standardisation activities within the Cognitive Computing Continuum Cluster! This event brings together Horizon Europe projects HYPER-AI, INTEND, EMPYREAN, ENACT, MYRTUS, Swarmchestrate, and CoGNETs. These projects focus on innovative techniques for managing computing resources from IoT and edge devices to central cloud centres, utilising Swarm computing and AI for automation and dynamic resource allocation. The cluster emphasises energy-efficient and trustworthy data processing at the edge, integrating intelligent orchestration mechanisms to handle vast data volumes and support scalability. Key areas include autonomous management, distributed machine learning, end-to-end security, and interoperability based on open standards, aligning with the European Partnership on AI, data, and robotics. This webinar will include presentations from experts of each project, as well as a joint panel discussion. It will be a unique opportunity to learn about and discuss the standardisation potential of the projects and is a step towards contributing to the future of standardisation and certification in the cognitive computing continuum domain. Speakers HYPER-AI – Mohammed Elbamby INTEND – Thijs Metsch EMPYREAN – Panagiotis Kokkinos ENACT – Alexandros Nizami MYRTUS – Alessandra Bagnato Swarmchestrate – Jay Deslauriers CoGNETs – Angel Cataron Agenda Introduction of the webinar (from HYPER-AI) Presentation of each project on their standardisation activities A joint panel session with all projects involved Closing remarks and next steps Register Here

We are pleased to announce that the EMPYREAN project will participate in the upcoming IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/2025) conference, taking place in Valencia, Spain, from 16th June 2025. EMPYREAN will be featured in Special Session SS14 – Cognitive Computing Continuum, a joint session bringing together several pioneering research projects working at the intersection of edge, cloud, and AI technologies. This session aims to explore novel paradigms and architectures for cognitive computing systems that dynamically span across the continuum — from sensors to data centers. Our participation will showcase how EMPYREAN is advancing the vision of a distributed, intelligent, and adaptive computing environment, enabling more resilient and context-aware applications across domains. We look forward to engaging with fellow researchers, industry stakeholders, and innovators in Valencia. Stay tuned for more details on our session contributions and agenda!

The EMPYREAN project was proudly represented at CCGRID 2025, held this year in Tromsø, Norway, through its co-organization of the RISE Workshop (Robotic Systems in the Edge-Cloud Continuum). The workshop brought together experts from academia and industry to explore how robotic systems can be optimized through edge and cloud computing technologies. The event was a great success, featuring a strong lineup of technical papers, thought-provoking discussions, and high-quality keynote talks. Among the highlights was a keynote delivered by our colleague Aitor Fernandez Gomez from IDEKO, who shared valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of integrating robotics with distributed intelligence in industrial settings. The workshop also included technical contributions from several EMPYREAN partners: ICCS (Institute of Communication and Computer Systems) presented its work on “Performance Evaluation of Robots Utilizing Approximation Computing Capabilities”. UMU (University of Murcia) presented its work on “Secure Federated Learning in Distributed Environments: A Blockchain-Based Approach” NUBIS showcased its work on “MLIoT: Transparent and Secure ML Offloading in the Cloud-Edge-IoT Continuum” The RISE Workshop exemplified EMPYREAN’s vision of enabling hyper-distributed, intelligent, and adaptable robotic platforms that can operate seamlessly across edge and cloud infrastructures. We thank all participants, speakers, and collaborators who made this event a success—and we look forward to building on the momentum as we advance WP5 and other EMPYREAN activities toward real-world deployments.

We’re thrilled to share that the EMPYREAN project was proudly represented at the 15th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER 2025), held in Porto, Portugal, from April 1–3, 2025. ICCS presented the paper “Optimization of Cloud-Native Application Execution over the Edge-Cloud Continuum Enabled by DVFS”, which explores our latest research on optimizing microservice orchestration in edge-cloud environments by minimizing execution time and energy consumption, leveraging Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). The presentation sparked engaging discussions around the orchestration of cloud-native applications, and we were excited to connect with fellow researchers and industry professionals pushing the boundaries of cloud-native technologies.

The EMPYREAN consortium gathered for its 4th Plenary Meeting on March 27–28, hosted by Universidad de Murcia (UMU) in the beautiful city of Murcia, Spain. The two-day meeting brought together partners from across Europe to assess progress and coordinate upcoming milestones. The focus was placed on key technical work packages (WP3 and WP4), in preparation for major deliverables due in Month 15. Partners shared updates on component integration efforts and use case development (WP5), with dedicated sessions to align on software interoperability and deployment strategies. Further discussions covered the coordination of ongoing technical activities, refinement of draft deliverables, and planning for dissemination and exploitation actions (WP7).  A hands-on session allowed partners to interact with available software components, test integrations, and provide feedback on technical maturity and alignment with project goals. A big thank you to UMU for the warm hospitality and excellent organization of this productive meeting! Stay tuned for more updates as EMPYREAN continues to build the next-generation, secure, and scalable IoT-edge-cloud continuum.

We are excited to announce that EMPYREAN participated in the latest “Future-Ready: On-Demand Solutions with AI, Data, and Robotics” event that gathered EU-funded projects in the AI, Data, and Robotics (ADR) partnership. The event was organized by AI on Demand & ADRA, supported by AI4Europe and ADRA-e, on February 18-19, 2025, in Brussels. Our colleagues from EV ILVO represented the EMPYREAN project in the event activities. This event provided an excellent opportunity to:    ✅ Showcase our latest results and how EMPYREAN contributes to AI-driven service reliability.    ✅ Engage with other AI, Data, and Robotics projects to foster synergies and collaborations.    ✅ Connect with ADRA Topic Groups and contribute to shaping future AI developments in Europe.    ✅ Participate in “Birds of a Feather” workshops, where emerging challenges were discussed to inform future research directions. This event brought together ADR partnership projects launched in 2022 and 2023 to showcase results, foster collaboration, and discuss emerging challenges and opportunities with key stakeholders, including representatives from the European Commission. 

EMPYREAN introduces a groundbreaking vision for an intelligent, AI-driven IoT-edge-cloud continuum, seamlessly integrating IoT devices, robots, and computational resources into collaborative collectives called Associations. These Associations dynamically form and operate across diverse infrastructures, spanning multiple providers, geographical regions, and connectivity types, creating a unified and interconnected ecosystem. At the heart of EMPYREAN’s architecture lies an AI-enabled control and management plane, which autonomously balances computing tasks, optimizes resource allocation, and ensures performance and resiliency across the platform. By leveraging advanced cloud-native technologies, deep learning techniques, and real-time telemetry data, EMPYREAN empowers intelligent workload orchestration and self-adaptive system management. Key Features of the EMPYREAN Architecture EMPYREAN adopts a layered architecture, where each layer consists of discrete components that interact using well-defined and open interfaces. These interactions occur both horizontally, within the same layer, and vertically, between layers, forming the EMPYREAN platform.    The Service Layer encompasses components that facilitate the development of Association-native applications, offering robust support for application-level adaptations, interoperability, elasticity, and scalability across the IoT-edge-cloud continuum. This layer focuses on key aspects such as: (a) workflow design and management, simplifying the creation and orchestration of hyper-distributed applications, (b) cloud-native unikernel application development, supporting lightweight, secure, and efficient deployment models, and (c) dataflow description, enabling precise and scalable data management within applications.  The Association Management Layer dynamically manages Associations within the IoT-edge-cloud continuum. By forming resource federations, it enables seamless collaboration, resource sharing, and data distribution across various segments within the continuum. Together with the Multi-Cluster Orchestration Layer, it is central to EMPYREAN’s distributed and autonomous management, establishing a resilient Association-based continuum. The Multi-Cluster Orchestration Layer handles service orchestration and resource management across EMPYREAN’s disaggregated infrastructure. Using autonomous, distributed decision-making mechanisms, it orchestrates dynamic, hyper-distributed applications while enabling self-driven adaptations. Multiple instances of this layer’s components provide decentralized operation, optimize resource utilization, and ensure scalability, resiliency, energy efficiency, and high service quality. The Resource Management Layer unifies the management of IoT, edge, and cloud platforms under the EMPYREAN platform. It integrates software mechanisms for both platform-level scheduling (e.g., EMPYREAN Controller, AI-enabled Workload Autoscaling) and low-level mechanisms (e.g., Unikernel Deployment). This layer operates within Kubernetes or K3s clusters and offers modularity, simplifying the integration of new hardware and software. The Data Management and Interconnection Layer ensures dynamic communication and secure data storage between IoT devices and computing resources. Operating at both cluster and Association levels, it provides flexible and scalable data management and seamless integration of IoT, edge, and cloud resources. It also supports distributed operation, facilitating efficient operation in complex, distributed environments. The Security, Trust, and Privacy Layer ensures secure access, privacy, and trusted execution across the EMPYREAN platform. Operating at both the cluster and Association levels, it delivers distributed trust services, enables secure and trusted execution environments, and provides controlled data access for guaranteeing data confidentiality and continuous validation of trust among entities. What’s Next? Stay tuned for upcoming project deliverables, which will be available on our website! They will provide deeper insights into: EMPYREAN Architecture – Detailed analysis of components and layers EMPYREAN Components – Presentation of technical innovations and developments System operation flows – Detailed breakdowns of platform interactions. Use case applications – How EMPYREAN’s architecture enables real-world innovations.   Follow us for the latest updates and explore EMPYREAN’s journey toward a next-generation IoT-edge-cloud ecosystem! Public Deliverables Publications Newsletters   Stay connected for upcoming newsletters, publications, events, and demos!