Just one day after officially starting, GRAIL was already being presented to the international robotics community at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2026), held in Vienna.
On the 2nd of June 2026, Magí Dalmau, from Eurecat Technology Centre and member of the GRAIL coordination team, presented the project through a pitch during the panel session “From Humanoid Robotics Research to Startup Creation: The Role of Public Funding.”
The session was moderated by Cécile Huet, from the European Commission, and Giorgio Metta, from the Italian Institute of Technology, and brought together experts to discuss how Europe can strengthen the path from robotics research to innovation and market uptake.
For GRAIL, the session provided an excellent opportunity to introduce the project and its ambition to develop sovereign foundation AI models for robotics, supporting more flexible, autonomous and trustworthy robots and contributing to Europe’s industrial competitiveness.
The discussion also offered valuable insights from other European robotics initiatives, including euROBIN, and highlighted the importance of collaboration, public investment and knowledge exchange in accelerating the transition from scientific excellence to real-world impact.
The activity took place ahead of GRAIL’s official Kick-off Meeting, held in Barcelona on the 22nd–23rd of June 2026, making ICRA one of the project’s first opportunities to engage with the wider European and international robotics ecosystem.