Welcome to SmartNets 2026! The 8th edition of SmartNets (2026) will be held on 7-9 July 2026 and hosted by LINK Campus University in the beautiful city of Rome, Italy. SmartNets 2026 is technically sponsored by the IEEE and IEEE Communucations Society (ComSoc), and organized under the patronage of the European Space Agency (ESA). The main goal of SmartNets 2026 conference is then to gather experts and researchers working on the topics related to embedded equipment design, resource-constrained media communications, security, data analysis, services, etc. Thus, SmartNets 2026 aims to bring together Academia (researchers and academics from top Universities and research institutes) and industry (technology companies, vendors and telecommunications providers) to: – Share the latest research findings – Address challenges in the digital transformation for the industry (i.e. cyber security) – Present the future of latest wireless communications technologies (including 5G and IoT) and their potential opportunities in the utilities sector. – Exchange experiences to implementing secure and reliable communications services. – to cover theoretical and practical aspects related to the Future of the Internet, the Internet of Things, Smart Cities and Smart Factories.