Thessaloniki, Greece — June–August 2025
As part of the EU-funded ENSURE-6G project (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-SE-01), Professor Eleni Mangina from the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin (UCD), completed a two-month secondment at Z-RED L.P., an SME based in Thessaloniki, Greece. The placement, running from 18 June to 16 August 2025, focused on Task 3.1 within Work Package 3: Innovative privacy solutions for 6G with legal and ethical consideration.
Objectives of the Secondment
The secondment was designed to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry in the area of trustworthy, AI-driven network security for 5G and beyond. By working closely with Z-RED researchers, Prof. Mangina aimed to bridge cutting-edge academic insights in distributed machine learning with the practical requirements of industrial network environments
Key Contributions and Achievements
During the secondment, Prof. Mangina:
- Conducted an in-depth analysis of privacy, security, ethics, and fairness challenges in AI/ML-enabled 6G intrusion detection.
- Discussed a requirements framework mapping legal and ethical safeguards to GDPR, the EU AI Act, IEEE standards, and international regulatory frameworks.
- Delivered a cross-use-case analysis ensuring safeguards were adaptable across different ENSURE-6G operational scenarios.
- Ensured traceability and compliance by correlating requirements with legal articles, standard clauses, and policy guidelines.
These results produced actionable design blueprints for deploying privacy-preserving AI security solutions in future 6G infrastructures.
Impact
The secondment has had scientific, industrial, and societal impacts:
- Scientific: Provided a rigorous methodology for aligning AI/ML security requirements with international standards.
- Industrial: Reduced compliance burdens and accelerated time-to-market for secure AI solutions.
- Societal: Advanced the development of human-centric, trustworthy 6G systems that embed fairness monitoring, human oversight, and privacy-by-design mechanisms
By directly addressing public concerns about AI surveillance, bias, and data misuse, this work contributes to EU digital sovereignty objectives and helps build public trust in next-generation networks.
Acknowledgements
The secondment was supported by Z-RED L.P., represented by CEO Eirini Kanaki, who hosted and mentored Prof. Mangina during her stay in Thessaloniki.
The collaboration highlights the strength of industry–academia exchanges in ensuring that ethical and regulatory considerations are embedded at the heart of technological innovation.
