Towards a sustainable and accepted 6G for Society

The 6G4Society project aims to address the tension existing between two parallel needs in terms of technological development of 6G: 1) securing technology performance objectives, and 2) ensuring that societal and sustainable values are properly embedded into technology. This will be done by engaging all key stakeholders within the Smart Networks and Services (SNS) ecosystem, but also by embracing civil society players, regulators, policy makers, media, and the public at large, to ensure correct and clear information about the expected impacts 6G technology will produce and induce is elaborated and disseminated. To achieve this objective, 6G4Society will apply methodologies from ethics, legal and social science and humanities (SSH) perspectives, allowing to comprehend socio-cultural aspects and mechanisms behind 6G technology and lay the foundation for a responsible research and innovation (RRI) of 6G technology. Based on these methodologies, 6GSociety will provide methods, models, guidelines, policy options and operation recommendations to develop sustainable and socially accepted 6G technology and applications. The 6G4Society results (including a Technology Acceptance Model for 6G technology, a framework of Key Sustainability Indicators, a policy brief and an operation brief) will be validated with all 6G-SNS JU projects by adopting public and user engagement methodology, as well as by involving the 6G-IA Working Groups and its connected projects. To achieve these ambitious objectives, the 6G4Society project is composed by a consortium with heterogeneous skills and competence, ranging from SSH and RRI (CEL and PSCE), technology (NOVA, PSCE and EBOS), networking coordination and management (MAR), communication and stakeholder engagement (D4P). The consortium has large experience in 5G-PPP/6G-IA projects and initiatives, and its partners have links with more than 20% of the current JU 6G-SNS initiatives, ensuring a strong cooperation to achieve objectives.