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 (European Conference on Networks and Communications) & 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. Read more: https://www.etsi.org/speakers/dr-matti-hamalainen/
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.
Read more: https://www.etsi.org/speakers/javier-velazquez-martinez/
Publicly Funded Collaborative Projects category:
Raul Muñoz from CTTC (Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya) and Mikko Uusitalo from Nokia Bell Lab representing respectively FLEX-SCALE (Flexibly Scalable Energy Efficient Networking) and 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.
Read more: https://www.etsi.org/speakers/flex-scale-project/
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. Read more: https://www.etsi.org/speakers/hexa-x-ii-project/
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