The first PICASSO Trans-Atlantic Symposium on ICT Technology and Policy was organized by the EU-funded PICASSO project, with contributions from the EC-funded BILAT USA 4.0 project. It was co-sponsored by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS), the IEEE Control System Society and the University of Minnesota, and hosted by the Technological Leadership Institute of University of Minnesota.

Held in Minneapolis, MN, USA on June 19-20, 2017, it brought together 90 outstanding representatives of the academic, industrial and policy makers communities from both, the EU and the US, in the areas of 5G Networks, Big Data, Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems, covering the spectrum of activities from research strategic prioritization, research assessments, and pre-competitive research, via commercialisation opportunities, to policy issues impacting the ICT area.

Its main objectives and underpinning questions? To explore the connections and interrelations among PICASSO’s technology focus areas, and between these areas and policy, within an EU/US collaboration context. For example: How is IoT and CPS impacting on trustworthiness of networks, and data security? And how are EU and US respectively addressing these challenges? Where and how are common views and frameworks being created, and, on the other hand, in which ways are the EU and US diverging? Are there common technology needs and gaps between the EU and US that need more attention and justify shared attention in research priorities or investments?

These are only some of the questions that animated the discussions among the high-level participants from academic, industry, and government organisations at the symposium, contributing to a fruitful international dialogue with the aim to provide, at the end of the project lifetime, EU and US key stakeholders with targeted recommendations to improve international collaboration across the identified priority areas, including the related technology/policy nexus.

The PICASSO project has been building on the Symposium discussions and outcomes since, taking them into account in further discussions and project activities.

The event key messages and outcomes have been summarized in the Symposium Report, published in the Publication Repository of the PICASSO website (see Public Deliverable D4.6). In particular, in the report you will find the Symposium conclusions for each of the PICASSO focus areas: CPS / IoT; Big Data; 5G Network; Smart Cities, Smart Energy, Smart Transport; and cross-cutting policy issues.

Publications given at the Symposium are also available for download on the ‘Agenda and Presentations‘ sub-section of the event related webpage.