In November 2025, the pAIramid project took part in Enlit Europe in Bilbao, one of Europe’s leading events dedicated to the digitalisation and decarbonisation of the energy system. Bringing together industry, research, policy and innovation actors, Enlit has become a recognised forum for discussing how advanced digital technologies can support complex, safety-critical infrastructures. While pAIramid is rooted in aerospace research, its participation at Enlit highlighted a growing convergence between sectors: the shared need for trustworthy, data-driven and certifiable AI solutions capable of supporting critical engineering decisions.

At first glance, energy systems and aerostructure certification may appear distant domains. Yet Enlit’s focus on digital twins, artificial intelligence, data spaces and system reliability closely mirrors the challenges pAIramid addresses in aviation. Both sectors face similar constraints: long development cycles, strict safety requirements, and increasing pressure to reduce environmental impact. In this context, Enlit provided an ideal setting to position pAIramid as part of a wider European effort to ensure that AI technologies are not only powerful, but also robust, transparent and fit for certification across safety-critical applications. Accordingly, pAIramid was showcased alongside other European research initiatives at the EU Projects Zone, reinforcing the value of cross-sector dialogue and knowledge transfer between projects tackling comparable challenges from different industrial perspectives.

As part of the project’s contributions to the event, pAIramid was represented at Enlit by Julen Manterola Najera (IKERLAN), the project’s coordinator, who presented the project during the AI Technologies session. His contribution focused on how AI-enabled simulation can transform traditional certification workflows for composite aerostructures, and outlined the core challenge faced by the aerospace sector: certification processes that rely heavily on extensive physical testing organised in a rigid, sequential testing pyramid which, while effective, proves to be a costly, time-consuming approach, limiting researchers’ and manufacturers’ ability to rapidly explore new materials and manufacturing processes.

The way through which pAIramid addresses this challenge, namely developing an AI-powered digital framework connecting all levels of the testing pyramid, from materials and coupons to components and full aerostructures  through high-fidelity virtual testing and data-driven models, proves to be a crucial contribution to the conversation, as rather than replacing physical testing outright, the project seeks to use AI to strengthen links between testing levels, improve predictability, and support informed decision-making throughout the certification process.
Unsurprisingly, a key message emerging from the Enlit discussion was that the principles underpinning pAIramid’s work extend beyond aerospace. The need to combine physics-based modelling with data-driven methods, to manage uncertainty, and to ensure explainability and trust in AI systems is equally relevant in the energy domain, and by engaging with an audience beyond the aviation community, pAIramid demonstrated how its approach to virtual testing, reliability and certification can contribute to the broader European conversation currently taking place on responsible AI deployment.

In this sense, Enlit served not only as a dissemination opportunity, but also as a validation of the project’s relevance across strategic sectors, as beyond the formal presentation, Enlit Europe provided valuable opportunities for networking and exchange. Beyond the presentation, the presence of pAIramid at the Zabala Innovation Europe booth further strengthened the project’s visibility within the wider EU innovation ecosystem, highlighting the importance of coordinated dissemination efforts and shared platforms to amplify project impact. With project partners engaged with experts working on data spaces, artificial intelligence and digital engineering, exploring potential synergies and future collaboration pathways, conferences and industry events such as Enlit still prove their unparallelled relevance as forums and crucibles for conversation and research innovation in the spirit of open science, and furthering European competitiveness in academia and industry.

pAIramid’s participation at Enlit Europe 2025 therefore underscored the project’s ambition to contribute not only to next-generation aerostructure certification, but also to Europe’s wider efforts to deploy AI responsibly in complex, safety-critical systems. As the project moves into its second year, such cross-sector engagement will remain essential, ensuring that insights developed within aerospace research resonate beyond disciplinary boundaries and support a more integrated, sustainable and trustworthy digital future.