On February 11–12, the ELISA Project community gathered for the 2026 Working Group (WG) and Special Interest Group (SIG) Annual Updates. Over two focused sessions, group leads shared key milestones from 2025, current technical priorities, and what lies ahead in 2026, along with concrete opportunities for collaboration and contribution.
The annual updates serve as a checkpoint for the project: a moment to reflect on progress, align on priorities, and welcome new contributors into the work of advancing Linux in safety-critical systems.
The first day opened with an ELISA Project overview from Technical Steering Committee Chair Philipp Ahmann (ETAS), highlighting overall progress and reinforcing ELISA’s mission to define and maintain common elements, processes, and tools that support safety certification for Linux-based systems.
The first day highlighted progress across ELISA’s core Working Groups:
Open Source Engineering Process – Paul Albertella (Codethink) shared updates on process alignment and best practices to support safety certification efforts.
Systems and Automotive – Philipp Ahmann discussed advancements in aligning Linux with functional safety requirements for automotive and system-level applications.
Safety Architecture – Gabriele Paoloni (Red Hat) presented ongoing architectural work supporting safety use cases.
Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems – Alessandro Carminati (NVIDIA) outlined kernel and feature-level progress enabling dependable Linux deployments.
The second day focused on use-case driven Working Groups and SIGs:
Aerospace – Matthew Weber (The Boeing Company) shared updates on Linux in aerospace systems.
Space Grade Linux – Ramon Roche (The Linux Foundation) discussed the evolution of Space Grade Linux and its relationship with ELISA.
BASIL & Tools WG Evolution – Luigi Pellecchia (Red Hat) highlighted progress in tooling and traceability efforts.
Lighthouse SIG – Philipp Ahmann provided insights into cross-domain collaboration and coordination.
The event concluded with closing reflections and a forward-looking discussion on collaboration opportunities in 2026.
Continuing the Work
The WG & SIG Annual Updates are more than a status review, they are a coordination point for the year ahead. As Linux adoption in safety-critical systems continues to expand across automotive, aerospace, industrial, and emerging domains, ELISA remains committed to open collaboration, practical tooling, and shared technical foundations.
Thank you to all speakers, contributors, and attendees who helped make the 2026 updates a success.
We look forward to another year of advancing Linux in safety-critical environments together.