The fifth generation of wireless technology (5G) has arrived and is being rolled out globally. First industrial sectors such as manufacturing are testing the capabilities of 5G showing great potential for ubiquitous connectivity. With the sixth generation (6G), wireless communication will bring new features, improved performance, and functional benefits to several industrial sectors. The TARGET-X project envisions accelerating the digital transformation of key verticals: energy, construction, automotive, and manufacturing using large-scale trials in multiple testbeds. By demonstrating, validating, and evaluating the potential of 5G/6G in real environments, the most advanced 5G/6G technologies such as real-time communication, localization, self-description, digital twinning, and sensor-network data fusion can be tested and evaluated. The focus of the evaluation is on KPIs and especially KVIs, such as sustainability, safety, security, and privacy. Based on these KVIs, new business models and a methodological assessment framework for economic and societal evaluation will be developed. The development of the solutions will be supported and guided by the TARGET-X community, a network of SMEs, IT- and OT-partners, and up to 100 FSTP third parties, bringing together a strong consortium with SMEs and innovation drivers. To reach TARGET-X's goals, a selection of use cases will be established for all verticals in the existing 5G testbeds. New 5G/6G features will be developed and integrated into the testbeds and validated in evolved use cases. The FTSP projects will both deliver new use cases and technical contributions. A large number of FTPS participants will strengthen the 5G/6G ecosystem. Results of the project will be discussed with 6G-SNS projects and used for standardization, also in the different verticals.

European mobility is drastically changing: growing urbanisation, environmental aspects, and safety are only a few of the key indicators pointing in this direction. Road infrastructures and vehicles are blending with the digital world, becoming always-connected, automated and intelligent, delivering optimal experience to passengers, and addressing societal goals (e.g., emission and accident reduction) and economic needs (e.g., vehicles as smart-living environments). In this respect, the European Union pushes for large-scale collaborative cross-border validation activities on cooperative, connected and automated mobility. 5G-CARMEN addresses these challenges harnessing the concept of “Mobility Corridors”. In 5G-CARMEN important European industries, academics and innovative SMEs commit to achieve world-wide impact by conducting extensive trials across an important corridor (by people/goods traffic volumes), from Bologna to Munich, spanning 600 km of roads, connecting three European regions (Bavaria, Tirol and Trentino/South-Tyrol) across three countries. Vehicle manoeuvre negotiation (at various levels of automation), infotainment, and emission control in sensitive areas are the cross-border use cases targeted by 5G-CARMEN pilots in order to maximise the project commercial, societal, end environmental impact. The project will build a 5G-enabled corridor to conduct cross-border trials and will deploy a mixture of 5G micro- and macro-cells for ubiquitous C-V2X connectivity. The 5G New Radio will be used to support latency sensitive and/or bandwidth hungry services and applications. The project will leverage on a distributed mobile edge cloud spanning from the vehicle itself to the centralised cloud. Multi-tenancy and neutral host concepts will be leveraged upon to deliver a final platform capable of enabling new business models. 5G-CARMEN will complement C-V2X with LTE and C-ITS technologies, targeting interoperability and harnessing a hybrid network.