Congratulations to our 2026 ITEA Award of Excellence winners!

On 15 September, four ITEA projects were celebrated at the 2026 ITEA Awards of Excellence ceremony in Istanbul, recognised for the impressive results they have delivered to industry and society. SYMPHONY received the award for Exceptional Excellence, FAMILIAR the award for Impact, AI FORSchung the award for Innovation, and GenerIoT the award for Collaboration.

These four projects reflect just how varied the ITEA programme's impact can be. Between them, they support better-informed healthcare decisions, advance AI-driven fibre-optic sensing, improve industrial efficiency and speed up the development of IoT systems. Their work proves that international collaboration can turn good ideas into solutions that genuinely make a difference.

We are proud to celebrate the achievements of SYMPHONY, FAMILIAR, AI FORSchung and GenerIoT, and invite you to learn more about these award-winning projects!

SYMPHONY delivers the right health data at the right time

SYMPHONY connects healthcare data, clinical workflows and AI to support better-informed decisions. From prostate cancer to multiple sclerosis, its open, interoperable approach is already demonstrating real clinical impact and providing a blueprint for more connected, AI-enabled healthcare.

Highlight example: The project has published a white paper, "Building the Foundations for Standardized Clinical AI: The SYMPHONY Contributions". It sets out how hospitals and vendors can combine existing standards - HL7 FHIR, openEHR, DICOM and IHE profiles - into one coherent, vendor-neutral architecture and shares the concrete lessons learned across the clinical use cases of prostate cancer, aortic aneurysm, atrial fibrillation and multiple sclerosis.

More information: SYMPHONY project and press release

FAMILIAR boosts industrial efficiency and road safety through federated AI and XR

FAMILIAR combined federated machine learning with extended reality to develop practical solutions for industry and mobility. It has accelerated vehicle simulation, reduced production waste, supported industrial workers and improved road safety.

Highlight example: In the automotive sector, FAMILIAR developed AI-supported XR solutions that dramatically reduce the time needed to prepare vehicle simulations. Processes that previously took days or even weeks can now be completed in minutes, accelerating product development and testing. The solution has already attracted more than 100 customers, with around 160 systems deployed and revenues of approximately EUR 1 million.

More information: FAMILIAR project and press release

AI FORSchung turns fibre-optic data into faster, smarter decisions in healthcare and infrastructure

Fibre-optic sensing can detect tiny changes in everything from medical devices to bridges and pipelines, but generates enormous amounts of data. AI FORSchung uses AI to dramatically reduce these volumes and detect anomalies faster and more accurately, supporting safer infrastructure, advanced medical procedures and more efficient fibre-optic sensing.

Highlight example: The project demonstrated that fibre-optic sensing data can be compressed substantially without compromising reliability. In pipeline and infrastructure monitoring applications, the project achieved compression factors of five to ten times, reducing 100 terabytes of data to as little as 12.5 terabytes. In healthcare use cases, compression rates exceeded 20 times.

More information: AI FORSchung project and press release

GenerIoT enables faster development and smarter maintenance of IoT systems

Through close collaboration between 19 partners, GenerIoT developed a common, automated DevOps approach that cuts engineering effort and dramatically speeds up development and analysis. Its results are already being integrated into commercial products and services and are contributing to international standards.

Highlight example: Configuration times of IoT systems were reduced from hours to seconds and simulation performance improved by 100 to 1,000 times, enabling developers to validate complex systems much more quickly.

More information: GenerIoT project and press release

Congratulations once again to all the ITEA Award of Excellence winners on their impressive results!