EU-Canada Digital Partnership Week on ICT Standardisation

Date
14 October 2025 15:00 – 16 October 2025 17:30
Location
Online

EU-Canada Digital Partnership Week on ICT Standardisation

14-16 October, Online

 

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Background

The European Union (EU) and Canada have long-established agreements, as reiterated in the recent EU-Canada summit (23/06/2025) , that underpin a strong and forward-looking cooperation for the digital era. These include the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which facilitates trade and investment, and the EU-Canada Digital Partnership, launched to enhance collaboration on digital policy and technology governance. Such agreements reflect the EU and Canada’s shared commitment for a secure, inclusive, and human-centric digital transformation, that will enable them to maintain their sovereignty and competitiveness among technological and geopolitical shifts. In line with the EU International Digital strategy, the European Union will continue to promote its values-based approach on digital governance and digital standards to shape a global digital transformation that is human-centric, trustworthy, and respects human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Ahead of the first EU-Canada Digital Partnership Council, anticipated later this year, The INSTAR EU-Canada Week on ICT Standardisation, co-organised with the Digital Governance Council, builds on this strong policy foundation through a series of expert-led workshops aimed at aligning approaches to international ICT standards. Organised by INSTAR, with the support of the European Commission (EC), EU Delegation in Canada, ETSI and CEN CENELEC, this initiative seeks to strengthen the EU and its international like-minded partners’ influence in global ICT standardisation, while promoting inclusive, human-centric, transparent, and interoperable standards.

By bringing together domain experts, industry stakeholders, policymakers and standards bodies from both jurisdictions, and beyond, the EU-Canada Digital Partnership Week will serve as a platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and joint action. It will reinstate shared priorities, as identified in the EU-Canada Digital Partnership, address standardisation challenges, and contribute to a more harmonised and resilient global digital ecosystem, anchored in democratic values and technological excellence. The sessions aim to identify concrete opportunities to scale up existing and emerging joint initiatives, while laying the groundwork for sustained, long-term cooperation between the EU and Canada. 

 

Themes

The EU-Canada Week will explore standardisation challenges across three key technology domains:

  • Dataspaces

  • Cloud-Edge-IoT (CEI)

  • Quantum technologies.

Discussions will focus on cross-cutting themes, including connectivity, interoperability and security and trust.

 

Format

The EU-Canada Digital Partnership Week encompasses three thematic workshops (1.5 - 2 hours) delivered online on Zoom provided by INSTAR. These multi-stakeholder sessions will include keynote speeches, expert presentations, roundtables and panel discussions. They will also allow the audience to ask questions and contribute insights via the chat and in a dedicated Q&A slot. 

 

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Agenda - Day 1, 14 October 2025

Cloud-Edge-IoT (CEI): Building cross-sectoral standardisation interfaces

Cloud-Edge-IoT standardisation is a key enabler of digital innovation across various sectors worldwide, including mobility, energy and manufacturing. It is also a critical component of the twin Green and Digital transition. In this session, INSTAR will bring forward the outcomes of the workshop on “Cross-Domain Standardisation and Architecture for IoT and Edge Computing” with South Korea’s TTA, and onto the table with the Canadian counterparts. The aim is to align on key strategic and technical aspects, to facilitate greater interoperability across the Cloud to Edge Continuum and promote industrial competitiveness across the two jurisdictions through trade.

Time (CEST)Session DetailsSpeakers
09:00 EDT/15:00 CESTOpening remarks: Strengthening transatlantic digital collaboration between the EU-CanadaEuropean Commission
09:15 EDT/15:15 CESTWelcome and context setting Damir Filipovic, Secretary General, AIOTI; CEI ETF lead, INSTAR 
09:25 EDT/15:25 CESTThe vision for collaboration and leadership in CEI standards 

European Commission

Government of Canada, TBC

09:45 EDT/15:45 CESTImplementation of EU standards across sectors: Best practices from ETSI MEC and the Task Force for Edge IoT deploymentsDario Sabella, Chairman of ETSI MEC, ETSI 
10:55 EDT/16:55 CESTFrom priorities to practice: Canada’s standards implementation in Cloud-Edge-IoT Keith Jansa, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Governance Council 
11:05 EDT/ 17:05 CEST 

Scaling Innovation: How Large-Scale Pilots and industry activities inform standardisation 

CEI-Sphere presentation  

Roundtable 

Bianca Gresele, Project Manager, CEI-Sphere

Ignacio Lacalle, Researcher, UPV; Coordinator, O-CEI

Dimitrios Klonidis, Head of Unit - Network Softwarisation & IoT Research Group, UBITECH; COP-PILOT

10:50 EDT/16:50 CESTPanel discussion: Cross-border interoperability - concrete steps towards open CEI standards 

Damir Filipovic, CEI ETF lead, INSTAR

Keith Jansa, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Governance Council

Cécile Rabrait, Project Manager Innovation, Trialog; Standardisation Lead, O-CEI, TBC

Dario Sabella, Chairman of ETSI MEC, ETSI 

11:25 EDT/17:25 CEST Close Damir Filipovic, Secretary General, AIOTI; CEI ETF lead, INSTAR  

 

 

Agenda - Day 2, 15 October 2025

Dataspaces: data Interoperability, trusted channels, data flows and transactions 

Data sharing, data spaces including interoperability and maturity, as well as trusted data frameworks, including transactions, have emerged as core priorities in INSTAR’s European Task Force on Data. This session will underscore the work performed so far in the EU and Canada, through initiatives like NGI, or in the IDSA, and start to identify a pathway for making the Common European Data Spaces interoperable and accessible across the Atlantic.

Time (CEST)Session DetailsSpeakers
09:00 EDT/15:00 CESTWelcome and context settingKnut Blind, Coordinator of Business Unit Innovation and Regulation, Fraunhofer ISI; Data ETF lead, INSTAR 
09:05 EDT/15:05 CESTShaping the future: trusted data channels and flows in a global context

Carlos Lopez Rodriguez, Policy Officer, DG CNECT

Costas Kapsouropoulos, Digital and Science Counsellor, EU Delegation to Canada 

09:25 EDT/15:25 CEST

EU priorities and best practices: showcasing real-world standards adoption across sectors

ETSI: TC Data

Q&A

Diego Lopez, Chairman, ETSI TC DATA 
09:40 EDT/15:40 CEST

EU priorities and best practices: showcasing real-world standards adoption across sectors

CEN CENELEC- JTC 25 Data management, Dataspaces, Cloud, Edge

Q&A

JTC 25 representative
09:55 EDT/15:55 CEST

Canada’s role in shaping secure data governance and data sharing frameworks 

Q&A

Standards Council of Canada, TBC
10:10 EDT/16:10 CEST Key initiatives in data sharing and interoperabilityDaniel Alonso, Technical Architecture Board, DSCC; Senior Technical Lead Big Data and AI ecosystems, BDVA
10:25 EDT/16:10 CESTRoundtable: The pathway to continued cooperation and results: strategies for ongoing EU-Canada collaboration on data spaces 

Knut Blind, Coordinator of Business Unit Innovation and Regulation, Fraunhofer ISI; Data ETF lead, INSTAR

Digital Governance Standards Institute, TBC

Silvia Castellvi, Director Research and Standardisation, IDSA

10:55 EDT/16:55 CESTClose Silvana Muscella, CEO, Trust-IT; Data ETF co-lead, INSTAR  

 

 

Agenda - Day 3, 16 October 2025

Quantum and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)

Quantum technologies is a common strategic priority for the EU and Canada. The EU’s International Digital Strategy highlights a commitment to establish with Canada collaborative projects in quantum computing, sensing, and communication, leveraging Canada's National Quantum Strategy and existing research hubs. That said, “the EU remains attentive to the role of quantum technologies in the future security landscape” which emphasises the need for a proactive approach towards post-quantum cryptography and standards. This session will bring together standardisation experts, industry players and policymakers from the two jurisdictions to present their respective activities and concretely explore collaboration opportunities on quantum and PQC standardisation.

Time (CEST)Session DetailsSpeakers
09:00 EDT/15:00 CESTWelcome and context settingHomer Papadopoulos, Research and Development Manager, NCSRD; Quantum ETF lead, INSTAR
09:05 EDT/15:05 CESTThe strategic importance of quantum technologies

European Commission

Government of Canada

09:25 EDT/15:25 CEST

EU priorities and best practices: showcasing real-world standards adoption across sectors

CEN CENELEC: JTC22 WG4

Q&A

Vicente Martin, Chair, CEN CENELEC JTC22 WG4 Quantum Comm and Cryptography 
09:35 EDT/15:35 CEST

EU priorities and best practices: showcasing real-world standards adoption across sectors

ETSI: QKD-ISG 

Q&A

ETSI QKD-ISG representative
09:50 EDT/15:50 CESTStandardising quantum technologies: Canadian approaches and activitiesKeith Jansa, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Governance Council 
10:00 EDT/16:00 CESTQBC's mission and activities: industry engagement and standards alignment in quantum  David Morcuende, Quantum Industry Network Manager, QuIC 
10:10 EDT/16:10 CESTISO/IEC JTC 3 Quantum activities and Canada - EU cooperationQasem Exirifard, Chair of the Canadian Mirror Committee for ISO/IEC JTC 3
10:20 EDT/16:20 CEST

New frontiers in joint quantum research: The HyperSpace initiative

Q&A

Fabian Steinlechner, Head of Department, Photonic Quantum Systems, Fraunhofer IOF 
10:40 EDT/16:40 CESTPanel discussion: The business case for post-quantum security: industry perspectives on the value of quantum-ready security

David Morcuende, Quantum Industry Network Manager, QuIC 

Quantum Industry Canada, TBC

Institute for Quantum Computing, TBC

Eleni Diamanti, Co-founder and scientific advisor, WeLinQ, TBC

Keith Elder, Program Director, Deutsche Telekom, TBC 

11:25 EDT/17:25 CESTClose Homer Papadopoulos, Research and Development Manager, NCSRD; Quantum ETF lead, INSTAR 

 

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EU-Canada Digital Partnership Week on ICT Standardisation