PRIVIDEMA represents an industry-driven initiative to advance privacy-preserving technologies in the application areas of cyber threat intelligence, data protection, and identity management. This multifaceted project operates across various research and innovation maturity levels, with the overarching goal of introducing more robust, user-friendly and scalable privacy and security technologies for the European ecosystem. Key components of PRIVIDEMA include: 1. Development of open-source tools, hosting networking events, and initiation of capacity-building efforts to democratize technology access and empower cybersecurity professionals. 2. Advancement of homomorphic encryption capabilities, implementation of hardware acceleration methods, and improvement of Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) usability. 3. Creation and demonstration of a prototype European identity wallet featuring issuer and relaying party functionalities. 4. Development and demonstration of a prototype European privacy-preserving cyber threat data processing system, with real-world testing and validation of innovative technologies. Aligned with the objectives of Horizon Europe, PRIVIDEMA actively contributes to increased cybersecurity, data and network protection, and the establishment of robust digital infrastructures. The project distinguishes itself through its commitment to supporting SMEs as well as promoting open-source development, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and privacy-by-design principles. The solution-oriented approach positions PRIVIDEMA as a pivotal force in advancing cyber-resilient digitalization and the data economy in Europe. PRIVIDEMA's connection to various European strategic initiatives underscores its relevance, with a clear emphasis on real-world applications, innovation beyond the state-of-the-art, and a strategic trajectory toward market-ready solutions.

The next generation of wireless communication networks, 6G, is set to revolutionize the scope and potential of networked services by offering ultra-high data rates, ultra-low latency, ultra-reliability, and energy efficiency. However, to fully realize the benefits of 6G, it is crucial to ensure efficient and effective orchestration of its broad range of services and resources. ELASTIC proposes a novel approach to 6G service orchestration that utilizes cutting-edge technologies, including WebAssembly (Wasm), Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), and edge Internet of Things (IoT) orchestration, to enable flexible and efficient serverless deployment of services and functions, dynamic scaling and optimization of service delivery, and collaborative processing of large datasets in a privacy-preserving manner. ELASTIC's approach addresses the critical issue of security in 6G orchestration by leveraging Confidential Computing with Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), and by implementing security policies and service level agreements provided by verticals in edge cloud-native environments and enclaves. To support the development of this approach, ELASTIC will conduct extensive research on executable isolation, early detection of security vulnerabilities, comparative study of Kubernetes eBPF solutions for observability, and assessment of WASM security properties. ELASTIC will also develop a comprehensive infrastructure that includes an open-source framework and interfaces for cross-platform and portable drivers, low-latency, real-time monitoring of cluster-distributed eBPF/XDP and WASM for security issues, high-speed, secure communication algorithms, distributed state synchronization algorithms, and an observability framework for WebAssembly-based serverless/FaaS workloads in Kubernetes. The impact of the ELASTIC will be materialised within the active contribution of the project to referent open-source projects (Linux, Kubernetes, etc), communities, and standards.

Our society is continuously demanding more and more intelligent devices, along with network infrastructures and distributed services that make our daily lives more comfortably. However, the frantic adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has led to widespread implementations without a deep analysis about security matters. This project encompasses the complete design of a platform, so-called SPIRS platform, which integrates a hardware dedicated Root of Trust (RoT) and a processor core with the capability of offering a full suite of security services. Furthermore, the SPIRS platform will be able to leverage this capability to support privacy-respectful attestation mechanisms and enable trusted communication channels across 5G infrastructures. RoT is implemented in hardware with a dedicated circuitry to extract a unique digital identifier for the SPIRS platform during its entire lifetime. To build a complete solution, the project also features a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), secure boot, and runtime integrity. Furthermore, resilience and privacy protection are major concerns in this project, and it endeavors to the design of a decentralized trust management framework targeted to minimize the impact of Single Point of Failure (SPOF) risks and achieve adequate security and privacy tradeoffs. To facilitate the tasks of validation and testing, SPIRS platform is conceived as an open platform that can easily integrate other building blocks and facilities upgrades. The project goes beyond the construction of the SPIRS platform and it provides solutions to integrate it in the deployment of cryptographic protocols and network infrastructures in a trustworthy way, leveraging the RoT provided by the platform. To validate SPIRS results, the project considers two different scenarios: Industry 4.0 and 5G Technologies.

Challenges related to “on the move” biometrics are 1/ lower quality live biometric data, and 2/ no time to read the ePassport. Also, fully automatic biometric border control solutions, even with a stop allowed, are currently deployed only for pedestrians in controlled environments. Carmen innovates biometric solutions for non-stop border control, suitable for pedestrians and vehicles, in uncontrolled environmental conditions. Travellers’ authentication is achieved in two steps: 1) the biometric data (face, iris, periocular) of travellers is securely stored in their smartphones, thanks to a DTC (Digital Traveller Credential); 2) the biometric data is securely transferred from the DTC to the border authroity infrastructure, and compared to the live biometric data collected as the traveller crosses the border control point. To address a variety of environmental conditions, Carmen uses both NIR and RGB live biometric images and compares them to the reference images that have been acquired with one type of lighting only. To make biometrics more robust, Carmen has a multimodal approach on face iris and periocular regions. In fraud detection, Carmen detects presentation attacks on moving travellers and detects anomalous traveller behaviour. To address small and large border crossing points, Carmen enables the use of fix and body-worn cameras. To address travellers in cars or lorries, Carmen detects face images in slowly moving vehicles, through the windows. Travellers in coaches are controlled by border guards walking through the coach, using dedicated portable equipment as they walk. Carmen addresses the robustness of DTC via data injection attacks. Carmen complies with the existing legal and ethical standards, and privacy is a central concern. Carmen solutions will be demonstrated in operational conditions over the UK – France border, as French and UK border authorities are part of Carmen consortium, using the infrastructure proposed by the partner Brittany Ferries.

5G-TIMBER project aims to validate through robust evidence the latest 5G Industrial Private Network features and standards specifications for Wood Value Chain (WVC) under realistic conditions. In particular, to conduct advanced field trials of the more representative and innovative data-driven material, production and installation flows that implicate manufacturing across 4 prominent industries in the wood sector including, machinery and wood house elements manufacturing, construction and renovation towards green buildings, wood waste valorisation, and established telecom SME industries in a project remit that spans 3 representative European regions (Norway, Estonia, Finland). The project incentivises the opportunistic uptake of 5G in real-life business conditions. Specifically, 5G- TIMBER will target to increase wood-based materials recycling by 50%, increase manufacturing productivity by 15%, reach 99% of the work done in the factory (vs. 85% today), reduce on-site work by 10%, reduce product nonconformities by 10%, and increase the safety of workers in wooden houses production and onsite assembling. Validation of above overall targets through >100 interdisciplinary innovation driven technical, business and service-level KPIs for 09 diverse WVC usecases across 3 categories i.e., data driven sawmill woodworking machines; modular wood-house factory; construction and renovation with wooden elements, valorisation of composite waste. Usecases will be incrementally validated by 2 lab trials followed by 2 field trials in iterative cycle covering significant portions of end-to-end WVC. 5G-TIMBER also includes a comprehensive business case and exploitation strategy that incorporates novel approaches to materializing the value of data produced in industrial environments based upon 4 distinct business models. Our 16-partner consortium is driven by strong industrial and SME partners, renowned organisations the majority of which participate in FoF cPPP, 5G-PPP, GD projects.