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A man in a suit speaks at a lectern in front of a large screen displaying the words Open Research Day and a colourful abstract image, inside a modern conference room.

Digital Futures Open Research Day 2026 showcases cross-sector collaboration and real-world challenges

On 6 May 2026, researchers, industry representatives, and public sector partners gathered for the Digital Futures Open Research Day 2026, a full-day event dedicated to discussing pressing societal challenges that could be tackled through interdisciplinary research.

Hosted at KTH Campus on Valhallavägen 79, the event brought together a diverse mix of stakeholders under the umbrella of Digital Futures, emphasizing collaboration between academia and external partners. The program focused on real-world problems presented by industry and public sector actors, followed by insights from ongoing research and postdoctoral projects.

The day opened with remarks by Annika Szabo Portela, Executive Director at Digital Futures, followed by a welcome talk from Mikael Lindström, Deputy President at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, who highlighted the importance of bridging scientific research with societal needs. The agenda then moved into thematic sessions covering connectivity, critical infrastructure resilience, sustainable data centers, digital twins, and large-scale testbeds.

In the morning session on connectivity, chaired by Urban Forssell (Digital Futures/KTH), Professor Panagiotis Papadimitratos (KTH) presented research on secure and scalable 6G IoT systems, while Associate Professor Marco Chiesa (KTH), discussed approaches to trustworthy software development. Industry perspectives were shared by Michael Björn (Ericsson), alongside Louise Stjern (Xylem), and Rahul Gore (Hitachi).

The session on critical infrastructures and resilience was chaired by Professor David Broman (KTH) and featured contributions from Assistant Professor Jagruti Ramsing Thakur (KTH), as well as Senior Researcher Joakim Eriksson (RISE). Industry insights were again provided by speakers from Ericsson and Hitachi, addressing both cybersecurity and physical resilience challenges.

During the afternoon, Professor Viktoria Fodor (KTH) chaired the session on sustainable data centers, where Assistant Professor Björn Eriksson and Professor Göran Finnveden (both at KTH), explored energy efficiency and environmental impacts of digital technologies. Contributions from Mikael Nutsos (Region Stockholm) and Dag Lundén (Ericsson) further illustrated applied solutions in healthcare and infrastructure.

The digital twins session, chaired by Professor Jennifer Ryan (KTH), included presentations by Assistant Professor Yongkuk Jeong and Associate Professor Romain Rumpler (both KTH), alongside Thomas Engelmark (Region Stockholm), who presented applications in healthcare optimization.

A highlight of the day was the postdoctoral poster session, where researchers such as Swati Panda, Adarsh Prasad Behera, Zhe Wang, Henri Giudici, Smriti Sharma, Arnaud Grivet Sébert, Wouter Jongeneel, and Yixi Cai—all affiliated with KTH—presented innovative projects spanning AI, sustainability, and smart infrastructure.

The final session on large-scale testbeds, chaired by Urban Forssell (Digital Futures/KTH), included presentations from Assistant Professor Farzin Golzar and Researcher Muhammad Umar B Niazi (both KTH), as well as contributions from Villiam Vejbrink Kildal (Region Stockholm), Karl Jonasson Collberg and Johanna Stjernström (both City of Stockholm), Malin Hansson (Skanska), and Benjamin Edvinsson (AstraZeneca).

According to program curator Yifang Ban, Associate Director for Dissemination and Impact at Digital Futures, the event was designed to “showcase partners’ real-world challenges, spark new research questions, and strengthen cross-sector transdisciplinary collaboration. This goal was reflected in the active discussions and Q&A segments that followed each session, where participants explored opportunities for future partnership.”

Urban Forssell, Head of AI Strategy and Innovation at Digital Futures, pointed out that “Digital Futures Open Research Day demonstrates the power of bringing academia, industry, and the public sector together around shared challenges. By connecting cutting-edge research with real-world needs, we create opportunities for innovation that no single organization could achieve alone.”

The day concluded with remarks by Karl H Johansson, Director at Digital Futures and Yifang Ban, summarizing key insights and a networking session that allowed attendees to deepen connections across sectors.

Overall, the 2026 edition of the Digital Futures Open Research Day reinforced the initiative’s role as a platform for fostering innovation through collaboration—linking academic excellence with practical challenges to shape the future of digital society.

Three people stand and talk near a lectern in a classroom with a large screen behind them displaying Open Research Day and a colourful abstract image. One person uses a laptop on the lectern.
Four people are having a discussion around a high table with laptops and cables in a brightly lit room. There are refreshments on a counter in the background and emergency exit signs above the doors.
Two men stand and talk in a conference room with empty chairs. Behind them is a screen displaying Open Research Day, 6 May 2026 with colourful light bulbs in the background.
A smiling man with short hair and a beard stands indoors, wearing a patterned shirt and carrying a rucksack. He holds a magazine titled digital futures and has a name badge on his chest. A red curtain and wooden door are in the background.
Three people stand and talk in an office. A woman gestures with her hands whilst two men listen. There is a glass door and a red curtain in the background, and the atmosphere appears casual and friendly.
A woman in a white shirt gestures while talking to a man in a striped jacket indoors. Two other people are in the background, one writing on a table and another standing nearby with a rucksack.
A man with curly hair and a moustache examines name tags laid out on a wooden table. Another person stands beside him. A pink workshop sign is posted on the wall in the background.
A man in a black jacket pours coffee from a large thermal carafe in a brightly lit room. In the foreground, trays with assorted sandwiches, fruit, and more coffee carafes are on the table.
Three men sit around a wooden table in a bright room, smiling at the camera while holding white coffee cups. The table and chairs are simple and black, and sunlight streams in through large windows.
A man in a grey checked suit and sunglasses stands indoors, holding a beige coat over his arm and adjusting his sunglasses, with wooden panelling and colourful glass in the background.
A man in a grey suit and a woman in a black suit and glasses are standing indoors, engaged in conversation, with empty chairs and papers nearby.
A group of people sit facing a screen in a bright room during a presentation. The screen displays the title “Open Research Day” with colourful graphics in the background.
A man in a suit with a microphone headset and glasses speaks, standing indoors by a red wall. He wears a white shirt, pocket square, and a name badge that reads digital futures.
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A man in a suit speaks at a lectern in front of a large screen displaying the words Open Research Day and a colourful abstract image, inside a modern conference room.
A man in a red patterned shirt speaks in front of a projector screen, wearing a headset microphone. He stands at a lectern with a laptop and remote control.
A research poster titled Towards Smart Cities: Multi-Scale Digital Twinning displays diagrams, charts, and graphics explaining digital twinning and smart city technology on a white background.
A research poster titled Flexible MIMO for Future Wireless Communications: Which Flexibilities are Possible? displays diagrams, text, and charts about MIMO technology, flexibility aspects, and deployment characteristics.
A research poster describes projects on mitigating transport emissions and monitoring underground pollution in Stockholm. It features charts, photos of researchers, text blocks, and contact information.
A research poster titled Cascading Machine Learning (CaMeL) displays sections on objectives, methodology, results with graphs, key innovations, a decision framework, references, and the authors’ affiliations.
A research poster titled Want to protect your data? Just cluster them! discusses clustering as a privacy-enhancing method, presenting mechanisms, mathematical formulae, a diagram, results graphs, and author information.
Academic poster titled AI-enabled self-powered biodegradable TENG for cardiac post-surgery wound healing and monitoring, featuring diagrams, workflow charts, text, research methodology, and logos from KTH and Lund University.
A yellow research poster titled Programmability of Cells discusses models in synthetic biology, featuring text, diagrams, graphs, equations, and a signed circular sketch in the centre. Logos appear at the bottom.
A research poster titled AI-Enhanced Structural Health Monitoring for Smarter and Safer Civil Infrastructure includes charts, graphs, diagrams, and text explaining AI methods for detecting structural damage.
A wooden box filled with assorted breads, including sliced loaves and crispbreads, sits on a table with plates of salad leaves and bottles of water in the background.
Two people stand indoors, smiling at the camera. The man wears a blue blazer, light shirt, and dark apron, while the woman wears a black outfit and holds a mobile. A table with a white cloth is in the background.
Several white plates arranged on a table, each featuring a gourmet dish with greens, sprouts, leafy lettuce, grilled vegetables, and a piece of herb-crusted protein topped with microgreens.
Two digital futures booklets, a glass candle holder, and a small vase with colourful flowers are arranged on a round table covered with a white tablecloth. Empty tables are visible in the background.
A woman in a yellow blazer presents with a microphone in front of an audience. Behind her, a screen displays a slide titled ForskarFredag 2026 Stockholm with event details and website images.
A man stands by a table addressing an audience in a conference room. A woman sits nearby. A presentation slide on the screen reads Concluding remarks with speaker names and a colourful hand graphic.

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