ELEGANT · Project

One Software Stack to Run IoT Devices and Cloud Analytics Together, Securely

digitalTestedTRL 5

elegant-h2020.eu

Imagine your smart sensors in a factory speak French and your cloud analytics speak Japanese — they can't really work together without a translator slowing everything down. ELEGANT built a single software layer that lets IoT devices and big data systems talk the same language. It automatically decides what computations happen on the device versus the cloud, optimizing for speed, energy savings, and security. Think of it as a universal remote control for your entire data pipeline, from tiny sensors to massive servers.

By the numbers

operational domains tested (health, automotive, smart metering, video surveillance)

EUR 4,983,250

EU contribution funding the technology development

partners across 9 countries in the consortium

final software components delivered

69%

industry partners in the consortium

The business problem

What needed solving

Companies running IoT sensor networks alongside cloud analytics face a costly fragmentation problem — the software for edge devices and cloud servers are completely separate worlds. This forces teams to maintain two technology stacks, makes it nearly impossible to optimize for speed, energy, and security across the whole pipeline, and creates blind spots where data moves between systems without proper verification.

The solution

What was built

The project delivered 7 final software components: a unified elastic runtime that works on both IoT devices and cloud servers, an AI-powered orchestrator with ML-based scheduling, an Acceleration as a Service prototype with automatic hardware-accelerated code generation, formal security verification tools for embedded Java code, cybersecurity mechanisms for the full stack, cross-cutting development tools, and data operator APIs. All were tested across health, automotive, smart metering, and video surveillance use cases.

Audience

Who needs this

IoT platform companies struggling to unify edge and cloud processingUtility companies managing large smart meter deploymentsAutomotive companies processing vehicle sensor data at scaleHealthcare IT companies handling sensitive data across wearables and cloudIndustrial automation firms needing secure, energy-efficient edge computing

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Smart Energy & Utilities

enterprise

Target: Energy companies running smart meter networks

If you are a utility company dealing with thousands of smart meters generating data that must be processed both locally and in the cloud — this project developed a unified elastic runtime and AI-powered orchestrator that automatically decides where each computation runs. With cybersecurity verification built in, your metering infrastructure stays secure while processing data faster and using less energy across 13 partner-tested components.

Automotive & Connected Vehicles

enterprise

Target: Automotive OEMs and fleet management companies

If you are an automotive company struggling to unify sensor data from vehicles with cloud-based analytics — this project built an Acceleration as a Service prototype that generates optimized code for different hardware automatically. The ML-based scheduler in the ELEGANT orchestrator allocates workloads between edge devices and cloud servers, validated across automotive use cases during the 3-year project.

Healthcare IoT

mid-size

Target: Digital health companies and hospital IT departments

If you are a healthcare technology provider dealing with sensitive patient data flowing from wearable devices to cloud analytics — this project delivered cybersecurity mechanisms with formal verification of embedded Java code on IoT devices. The unified programming tools let you write once and deploy across devices and cloud, tested specifically in health domain use cases with security properties verified through bounded model checking.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to license or adopt this technology?

The project was funded as a Research and Innovation Action with EUR 4,983,250 in EU contribution across 13 partners. Licensing terms are not publicly documented. Contact the coordinator EXUS SOFTWARE (Greek SME) to discuss commercial licensing of specific components like the orchestrator or elastic runtime.

Can this scale to industrial-level IoT deployments?

The ELEGANT stack was tested across 4 distinct operational domains: health, automotive, smart metering, and video surveillance. The Acceleration as a Service prototype demonstrated successful execution on all IoT devices, gateways, and cloud configurations used in the project. Scaling beyond test environments would require further engineering work.

Who owns the intellectual property?

IP is distributed among the 13 consortium partners across 9 countries, with EXUS SOFTWARE as coordinator. As an RIA-funded project, partners typically retain ownership of their contributions. Specific licensing arrangements should be negotiated with the relevant partner holding IP for the component you need.

How does this integrate with our existing IoT and cloud systems?

ELEGANT was built on JVM-compatible technology, with formal verification models for common Java classes. The data operators' creation API provides a standard interface for integration. The elastic runtime is designed to work across IoT devices and cloud servers, though integration with proprietary systems may require customization.

What security guarantees does it provide?

The project delivered formal language for specifying security properties with verification using incremental bounded model checking and k-induction on embedded IoT code. Cybersecurity mechanisms were developed and integrated across the full ELEGANT stack. These go beyond standard testing by mathematically proving security properties hold.

Is this ready to deploy today?

The project delivered final versions of all 7 key components including the orchestrator, elastic runtime, and acceleration service as of December 2023. These are tested prototypes validated in 4 use case domains, not commercial products. Moving to production deployment would need packaging, support infrastructure, and SLA commitments.

Consortium

Who built it

The ELEGANT consortium is heavily industry-driven with 9 out of 13 partners (69%) coming from the private sector, including 6 SMEs. This is unusually high for a research project and signals strong commercial intent. The coordinator, EXUS SOFTWARE, is a Greek SME — meaning a company that builds and sells software is steering the project, not a university. With partners spread across 9 countries (AT, CY, DE, EL, IE, IT, LU, PL, UK), the technology has been developed with European market diversity in mind. The 3 universities and 1 research organization provide the scientific backbone, but the commercial majority suggests these tools were built with real deployment scenarios in mind.

EXUS SOFTWARE MONOPROSOPI ETAIRIA PERIORISMENIS EVTHINISCoordinator · EL
UNIDATA SPAparticipant · IT
UNI SYSTEMS SYSTIMATA PLIROFORIKIS MONOPROSOPI ANONYMI EMPORIKI ETAIRIAthirdparty · EL
UNISYSTEMS LUXEMBOURG SARLparticipant · LU
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERparticipant · UK
SPARK WORKS ITCparticipant · UK
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLINparticipant · DE
UBITECH LIMITEDparticipant · CY
ITTI SP ZOOparticipant · PL
CONSORZIO NAZIONALE INTERUNIVERSITARIO PER LE TELECOMUNICAZIONIparticipant · IT
EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTONparticipant · EL

How to reach the team

EXUS SOFTWARE (Athens, Greece) — Greek software SME that coordinated the 13-partner consortium. Reach out via their company website for licensing discussions.

Order a report on this consortium See EXUS SOFTWARE MONOPROSOPI ETAIRIA PERIORISMENIS EVTHINIS profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to explore how ELEGANT's unified IoT-to-cloud stack could fit your data infrastructure? SciTransfer can arrange a technical briefing with the right consortium partner for your use case.

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