Sophia Antipolis, France, 5 June 2026
ETSI is pleased to unveil the winners of the first edition of its Research & Innovation Awards. Announced last night in Málaga during the gala dinner of the EuCNC & 6G Summit, the winners were recognised in three categories: Individual Researcher, Young Researcher and Publicly Funded Collaborative Project. Among a large number of high-quality nominations, making the selection process highly competitive, the 2026 winners are:
Individual Researcher category: Dr Matti Hämäläinen
Dr Matti Hämäläinen is an Adjunct Professor and University Researcher at the Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland. He has had a sustained and high-impact influence on European and international standardisation in wireless body area networks through his long-standing contributions to ETSI TC SmartBAN.
Young Researcher category: Javier Velázquez Martínez
Javier Velázquez Martínez is an R&D Engineer at Telefónica Innovación Digital CDO. He has played a key technical role in the design, development, and integration of the Network Slice Controller (NSC) within the ETSI SDG TFS (TeraFlowSDN) ecosystem, while actively promoting alignment with IETF network slicing standardisation efforts.
Publicly Funded Collaborative Projects category:
Raul Muñoz from CTTC (Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya) representing FLEX-SCALE (Flexibly Scalable Energy Efficient Networking)
Mikko Uusitalo from Nokia Bell Labs representing Hexa-X-II
The significant technical contributions delivered by FLEX-SCALE have greatly increased the maturity, relevance, and industrial impact of ETSI Software Development Group TeraFlowSDN (SDG TFS) deliverables. The Hexa-X-II Project has delivered valuable early contributions to several ETSI Industry Specification Groups (ISGs), actively shaping the technical foundations of pre-6G systems.
Perspective from the International Alliance for Regional Innovation and Standardization (IARIS)
The International Alliance for Regional Innovation and Standardization (IARIS) believes that the establishment of the ETSI Research & Innovation Awards fully demonstrates the importance that standards development organizations attach to innovative talent and cutting-edge research projects, as well as their systematic efforts to cultivate such talent. These awards not only recognize individual researchers and teams that have made outstanding contributions to ICT standardization, but also build a vital bridge connecting academic innovation with technical standards. IARIS encourages its member organizations to actively engage in innovation incentive programmes organized by international standards bodies, to promote the deep integration of standards development with cutting-edge research, to accelerate the translation of scientific and technological achievements into international standards, and to jointly build an open, collaborative, and efficient global standardization innovation ecosystem.
About ETSI
ETSI is one of only three bodies officially recognised by the European Union as a European Standards Organisation (ESO). It is an independent, not-for-profit body dedicated to ICT standardisation. With over 900 member organisations from more than 60 countries across five continents, ETSI offers an open and inclusive environment for members representing industry, research institutions, academia, governments, and public bodies. ETSI supports the timely development, ratification, and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications, and services across all sectors.
Source: ETSI press release, with IARIS perspective added, compiled and published on www.iaris.org
Publication Date: 5 June 2026
