IPCEI-CIS pilots advancing European cloud and edge technologies towards digital sovereignty
6, February, 2026
Large European initiatives such as IPCEI-CIS are built around multiple projects developed across Member States, each led by a coordinating organisation and supported by networks of industrial and research partners. These projects address different parts of the cloud and edge computing landscape, from infrastructure and orchestration to services, data and interoperability, but they are not isolated from one another. The same companies and research organisations often contribute to more than one project, carrying technologies, components and expertise across initiatives.
Within IPCEI-CIS, project results are validated and showcased through two closely related but distinct types of initiatives: Pilots and Demonstrators.
Pilots are integration-driven initiatives that bring together technologies developed across multiple IPCEI-CIS projects and Integration Clusters. They act as points of convergence, showing how multiple actors and capabilities can work together in shared cloud and edge infrastructures and services. For example, infrastructure components developed in one project can be combined with service-layer technologies from another and tested against real workloads and use cases.
In this sense, IPCEI-CIS Pilots act as integration and validation environments at ecosystem level. Initiatives such as Virt8ra, Fact8ra, Apeir8ra and Lab8ra illustrate this approach in practice, as they integrate contributions from multiple IPCEI-CIS projects and make collaboration and interoperability visible in real operational conditions.
Alongside these ecosystem-level Pilots, Demonstrators focus on validating and showcasing specific solutions developed within individual projects or by single companies, providing concrete evidence of how IPCEI-CIS results can be applied in real operational or sectoral contexts. The FACIS Proof of Concept is an example of such a Demonstrator within IPCEI-CIS.
Virt8ra: the IPCEI-CIS software stack for cloud and edge virtualisation
Virt8ra addresses the most foundational layer of the IPCEI-CIS ecosystem: cloud and edge infrastructure. It provides a shared software stack that enables infrastructures operated by different providers and located across Europe to be virtualised and federated. Rather than introducing a new centralised platform, Virt8ra builds on open-source and interoperable technologies to connect existing infrastructures. This makes it possible to deploy and move workloads across providers and locations (from data centres to edge environments) while preserving technical diversity and operational autonomy.
Virt8ra is coordinated by OpenNebula Systems and is designed to act as a reusable foundation for other pilots and initiatives within IPCEI-CIS.
Fact8ra: Bringing AI services to federated cloud and edge environments
Once a federated infrastructure layer is in place, the next step is to understand how it can support advanced, real-world services. This is the focus of Fact8ra, which explores how artificial intelligence services can be delivered in a distributed European environment.
Fact8ra is designed as an European AI Factory, providing a multi-tenant AI-as-a-Service framework that enables the deployment of ready-to-use, private instances of open-source large language models. These services run on federated cloud and edge infrastructures, building on technologies and capabilities developed within IPCEI-CIS projects.
A central aspect of Fact8ra is its focus on industrial and application-driven use cases, where AI workloads must meet requirements in terms of performance, scalability, trust and data governance. By operating on federated infrastructures such as those enabled by Virt8ra and ONEnextGen, this pilot demonstrates how AI services can scale at European level without relying on a single centralised platform.
ApeiroRA: Managing data and context across distributed cloud and edge systems
While infrastructure and services are essential, effective AI and data-driven applications depend on how data is managed in distributed environments. ApeiroRA addresses this challenge by focusing on scenarios where data is spread across organisations, locations or systems, and where legal, security or operational constraints prevent centralisation.
The pilot explores how data spaces, contextualisation mechanisms and federated cloud-edge resources can be combined so that data can be accessed, understood and reused where it is generated. In practical terms, ApeiroRA works on making data discoverable, interoperable and usable across federated infrastructures, while keeping control with data owners.
Building on results from several IPCEI-CIS projects working on cloud-edge technologies, data management and AI readiness, and advanced by a European consortium of industrial and research actors, ApeiroRA complements infrastructure-focused pilots such as Virt8ra and service-oriented initiatives like Fact8ra. It highlights that a European cloud-edge ecosystem also requires trust, governance and data sovereignty.
Lab8ra: Validating interoperability in the IPCEI-CIS ecosystem
Lab8ra provides the cross-cutting validation layer of the IPCEI-CIS ecosystem. Instead of operating as a single demonstrator, the pilot offers a shared framework that coordinates multiple pilot activities and test environments, each linked to specific IPCEI-CIS projects, technologies or use cases.
These activities may focus on integrating cloud and edge infrastructure components, validating service orchestration across providers, or testing how data and AI services interact in federated environments. As a result, several pilot implementations run in parallel within Lab8ra, using common testing principles but different technical configurations. This allows interoperability to be assessed across real combinations of technologies rather than in isolation.Lab8ra is coordinated by TIM and brings together 14 companies from six European Union countries, including industrial players, research organisations and technology providers such as Engineering, Fincantieri and Fondazione Bruno Kessler.
FACIS PoC: Digital Collaboration by Federation
The FACIS Proof-of-Concept serves as an IPCEI-CIS pilot, centring on federated ecosystems and uniting open-source and federated framework components for identity, trust, access control, and orchestration. It also validates their interaction within a realistic, multi-actor environment.
It demonstrates how these capabilities can support collaboration within the aviation sector, including partner onboarding, service discovery, and controlled access among airlines, airports, manufacturers, travel agencies, and service providers. Secure interactions are enforced through fine-grained, attribute-based access control and Zero Trust principles to ensure that every access request is continuously verified.
Deployed on the FACIS testbed using 8ra-ready cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes and cloud-native orchestration technologies, the PoC validates the portability and interoperability of federated trust services in real operational conditions. It establishes a reusable pattern for secure, federated operations in aviation and other regulated sectors.
A shared European ecosystem
Taken together, Virt8ra, Fact8ra, Apeir8ra, and Lab8ra and the FACIS PoC show how IPCEI-CIS pilots function as living enviroments for integration, demonstration and validation. Rather than static demonstrations, they continue to evolve through reuse, extension and the onboarding of new actors, helping transform project-level results into shared European cloud and edge capabilities. Supporting this evolution, by connecting projects, highlighting results and making these interactions visible, and used and tested, is a key part of CISERO’s role within the IPCEI-CIS ecosystem.
Interested in the pilots or their results?
Explore how IPCEI-CIS pilots are evolving, or get in touch with CISERO to learn how organisations can engage with the ecosystem.