The HIGHER Project featured prominently in the HiPEAC 2026 Conference in Kraków, Poland with presentations in three workshops. The Conference is one of Europe’s premier forums for experts in computer architecture, programming models, compilers, and operating systems and brought together researchers and industry representatives working across key domains such as safety-critical systems, cybersecurity, energy efficiency, and machine learning.
HIGHER’s participation in the CompContinuum, CONCERTO and OFEIA workshops highlighted its role in addressing increasingly complex computing workloads through flexible, heterogeneous infrastructures integrating cloud, edge, HPC, and IoT technologies. The workshops also served as key venues to showcase project progress and strengthen collaboration with other European initiatives such as CAPE, RISER, VITAMIN-V, AERO, and OpenCUBE. Learn more about HIGHER’s participation in the workshops:
The 4th Workshop on Computing Continuum (CompContinuum’26)
The HIGHER Project co-organized the 4th Workshop on Computing Continuum (CompContinuum’26), a half-day event dedicated to discussing fundamental challenges and research opportunities in supporting efficient combinations of Cloud, Edge, HPC, and IoT technologies within a computing continuum. The workshop fostered in-depth discussion on critical topics, including required hardware and system architecture optimizations, necessary evolutions of the software stack, and approaches to improving power and energy efficiency in line with the European Green Deal. Particular attention was also given to workloads that can benefit from heterogeneity, elasticity, and dynamic resource provisioning.
During CompContinuum’26, Dr. Manolis Marazakis, HIGHER coordinator from FORTH, delivered the presentation “What about European Server Systems? Perspectives from the RISER and HIGHER Projects.” His talk outlined the RISER project’s efforts to build European data-center platforms based on RISC-V processors and open standards, as well as HIGHER’s expanded vision incorporating both Arm and RISC-V architectures, Open Compute Project standards, and CXL-based disaggregated memory. The presentation highlighted how these efforts are contributing to Europe’s path toward digital sovereignty through open, energy-efficient, and deployable cloud infrastructures spanning the edge-to-cloud
continuum.
The 4th CONCERTO Workshop
HIGHER also contributed to the 4th CONCERTO Workshop (Projects Cross-Synergy in Advancing Exascale Platforms and Quantum Computing), which fostered discussions among academic and industry stakeholders involved in European and
national funded initiatives. The workshop focused on addressing project-specific challenges and building synergies for next generation post-Exascale hybrid platforms.
With a look toward European Petascale, Pre-Exascale, and upcoming Exascale systems, including AI factories, the workshop enabled the exchange of ideas and results on heterogeneous hardware integration, software frameworks, and complex application workflows, bringing together representatives from EuroHPC JU, Horizon Europe, and nationally funded projects.
In this workshop, Dr. Marazakis presented “Towards European Computing Systems based on Open Standards: Perspective from the HIGHER Project.” His presentation emphasized HIGHER’s contribution to sovereign European computing systems, showcasing how open standards and heterogeneous architectures can support scalable, high-performance infrastructures aligned with European strategic goals.
Cognitive Edge–Cloud Architectures, Orchestration, and Standardisation (OFEIA)
The HIGHER Project further strengthened its presence through participation in the workshop on Cognitive Edge–Cloud Architectures, Orchestration, and Standardisation, organized by the Open Federated Edgecloud Infrastructure Alliance
(OFEIA). This workshop was organized by HIGHER’s cluster sibling CAPE (European Open Compute Architecture for Powerful Edge) and provided updates on OFEIA’s activities and featured presentations on standardisation, technological
innovation, and integration projects aimed at building resilient and sovereign compute continuum.
In this session, Dr. Marazakis delivered the presentation “European Heterogeneous Cloud/Edge Infrastructures for Next Generation Hybrid Services – The HIGHER Project.” The talk highlighted key HIGHER innovations, including European-designed system-on-chips for energy-efficient cloud–edge processing, heterogeneous compute and rack-scale memory pooling, scalable high-performance interconnects, and an open-source European cloud/edge software stack. The presentation underlined HIGHER’s support for Arm- and RISC-V-based cloud infrastructures as a foundation for technological sovereignty and interoperability across sectors as well as reinforcing collaboration across projects of the same European topic call.
Overall, HIGHER’s active role at HiPEAC 2026 underscored the project’s growing impact on the European computing landscape. Participation in these key workshops and the presentation of concrete technical advances demonstrated how HIGHER’s commitment to open standards, heterogeneous architectures, and collaborative research is shaping a resilient and sovereign European computing continuum from edge to cloud.