As part of the Inter-oPEn project, we are pleased to highlight that five of our doctoral candidates attended the 2026 HVDC Colloquium: Ali Sajjadi (RWTH-ACS), Musa Mathew (RWTH-IAEW), Emmanuel Sule (KUL), Abdolhamid Farshadi (TUBS), and Mohammadtaher Azampour (RUG-STeP).

The event, held between 18–20 March 2026, was hosted by KU Leuven and the Etch – Energy Transmission Competence Hub, and took place at the historic Irish College Leuven in Belgium.

The colloquium served as a great forum for discussing High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technologies, bringing together a valuable mix of junior and senior researchers alongside industry experts. It provided a strong platform for our team to discuss our research topics, engage in technical dialogues, and gather constructive feedback.

During the event, two of our researchers presented their contributions to the field:

• Abdolhamid Farshadi (TUBS): “MBSE-Based Concept-Level Protection Implementation for HVDC grid protection system development”
• Mohammadtaher Azampour (RUG): “Patent Protection and Interoperability of Control Systems in Multi-Terminal Multi-Vendor (MVMT) High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission”

Beyond the formal presentations, the colloquium fostered highly productive discussions around the technical challenges and interoperability requirements of future HVDC networks. The fresh perspectives, collaborative opportunities, and constructive feedback gained in Leuven will be highly valuable as we continue to advance th e research objectives of the Inter-oPEn project.

Abdolhamid Farshadi (TUBS)	Mohammadtaher Azampour (RUG)

Written by Ali Sajjadi, Musa Mathew, Emmanuel Sule, Abdolhamid Farshadi, and Mohammadtaher Azampour.