The €8 million SHIELD-6G project, launching today, is an initiative tasked by the European Commission with establishing the foundational security, reliability, and resilience guidelines for 6G networks.

A major strategic award that has implications for the Irish and European network technology sectors, SHIELD-6G was the sole awardee under the highly competitive Horizon Europe Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) call.

The consortium is led by Associate Prof Madhusanka Liyanage, Director of UCD NetsLab, University College Dublin, and an internationally recognised expert in secure 5G/6G networks, AI-enabled cybersecurity, XAI, and blockchain-based trust mechanisms.

He said: “6G will be far more than the next step in mobile connectivity; it will form the intelligent digital nervous system of future society, connecting people, industries, critical infrastructure, and autonomous systems. Through SHIELD-6G, we are working to ensure that security, trust, and resilience are embedded at the very foundation of this future. By developing an advanced 6G-native Cyber Threat Intelligence platform, SHIELD-6G will enable future networks to anticipate, detect, and recover from cyber threats intelligently, efficiently, and in real time. This is a major opportunity for Ireland and UCD to play a leading role in shaping secure and trustworthy 6G networks globally.”

At UCD, the project will also be supported by co-Principal Investigators Dr Ray Genoe from UCD Centre for Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation (CCI), and Associate Prof Pasika Ranaweera from UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Spearheading AI-Native, Zero-Trust Resilience

The SHIELD-6G project aims to shift the paradigm from basic operational network reliability to an unprecedented standard of systemic resilience. The architecture addresses the critical priority of reliable service operation by pioneering an AI-native, privacy-preserving, and energy-aware platform.

At its core, the platform introduces a sophisticated Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) pipeline tailored to 6G semantics. By combining automated zero-touch security orchestration with privacy-preserving analytics—such as federated learning, secure multi-party computation, and differential privacy—SHIELD-6G will empower multi-stakeholder networks to share intelligence and self-heal against cascading vulnerabilities without ever moving raw, sensitive data.

Global technology leader Thales is a partner in the consortium. Pascal Bisson is Head of Advanced Studies at Thales R&T France/cortAIx Labs and Project Technical Manager within Shield-6G. He said: “SHIELD-6G is an important step towards building secure, resilient, and trustworthy 6G infrastructures. By bringing together cyber threat intelligence, AI-native security, and automated response capabilities, the project will help address the complex security challenges of future networks.”

Elite Ecosystem

SHIELD-6G unites an elite, multi-disciplinary ecosystem of 19 international partners combining world-leading academic research institutions, multinational industrial giants, and highly specialised small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Reflecting the project's strategic commercial focus, UCD spin-out MBP Network Technology Ltd (MBP Systems) has secured a central role in the consortium. Founded in 2024 under the technical leadership of Liyanage, MBP recently secured substantial funding to bridge the gap between academic innovation and commercial deployment.

Dr Bartlomiej Siniarski from UCD School of Computer Science is the MBP Principal Investigator in SHIELD-6G. He said: “As a UCD spin-out, MBP is proud to support SHIELD-6G in bridging the gap between advanced academic research and real-world commercial deployment of secure 6G technologies. Within the project, MBP will help drive dissemination, exploitation, and industry uptake, while developing edge-focused solutions for energy-efficient AI optimisation and intelligent intrusion detection and prevention. Through SHIELD-6G, MBP aims to translate cutting-edge 6G research into practical, trustworthy, and resource-efficient security solutions for telecom operators, critical infrastructure providers, and industrial IoT deployments.”

MBP is supported through the NovaUCD innovation ecosystem, reflecting UCD’s growing strength in translating frontier research into high-impact commercial ventures.