Call: Scalable privacy-preserving technologies for cross-border federated computation in Europe involving personal data

Europe is in the midst of a digital transformation. Digital technologies are profoundly changing our daily life, our way of working and doing business, and the way people travel, communicate and relate with each other. Digital communication, social media interaction, artificial intelligence, e-government, e-commerce and digital enterprises are steadily transforming our world. They are generating an ever-increasing amount of data, which, if pooled and used, can lead to a completely new means and levels of value creation. The more interconnected we are, however, the more we are vulnerable to cyber threats.

Digital disruption, notably caused by malicious cyber activities, not only threaten our economies but also our way of life, our freedoms and values, and even try to undermine the cohesion and functioning of our democracy in Europe.

Regardless of the economic, political or personal motivations behind the cyber threats, securing our future wellbeing, freedoms, democratic governance, and prosperity depend on improving our capacity to shield the EU from malicious attacks and to address digital security weaknesses in general. The digital transformation requires improving cybersecurity substantially, so as to ensure the protection of the increasing number of connected devices and the safe operation of network and information systems, including the ones used in power grids, drinking water supply and distribution services, vehicles and transport systems, hospitals and the overall health system, finances, public institutions, factories, and homes. Europe must build resilience to cyber-attacks and create effective cyber deterrence, while making sure that data protection and freedom of citizens are strengthened. These efforts should include considerations for particularly vulnerable organisations and citizens.

The technological tools of cybersecurity are strategic assets, as well as being key growth technologies for the future. It is in the EU's strategic interest to ensure that the EU retains and develops the essential capacities to secure its digital economy, society and democracy, to protect critical hardware and software and to provide key cybersecurity services.

Cybersecurity research and innovation activities will support a Europe fit for the digital age, enabling and supporting digital innovation while highly preserving privacy, security, safety and ethical standards. They will contribute to the implementation of the digital and privacy policy of the Union, in particular the NIS Directive [[Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union (NIS Directive).]], the EU Cybersecurity Act [[Regulation (EU) 2019/881 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and on information and communications technology cybersecurity certification and repealing Regulation (EU) No 526/2013 (Cybersecurity Act).]], the EU Cybersecurity Strategy [[Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council The EU's Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade JOIN/2020/18 final.]], the GDPR[[Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).]], and the future e-Privacy Regulation.

Research and innovation will build on the results of Horizon 2020 such as the pilot projects funded under SU-ICT-03-2018 [[Establishing and operating a pilot for a Cybersecurity Competence Network to develop and implement a common Cybersecurity Research & Innovation Roadmap.]].and other relevant H2020 topics and cybersecurity activities (e.g. carried out by ENISA [[https://www.enisa.europa.eu/]] or relevant parts of work of the EIT Digital[[https://www.eitdigital.eu/]]). The activities will be aligned as relevant with the future objectives of the Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network of National Coordination Centres (Commission proposal COM(2018) 630). They will be complementary to actions under the Digital Europe Programme, Specific Objectives 3 and 4, which will strengthen EU cybersecurity capacity by support to deployment of cybersecurity infrastructures and tools across the EU, for public administrations, businesses, and individuals, and support digital skills including in cybersecurity. For example support is foreseen to specialised education programmes or modules in key capacity areas such as cybersecurity. Generally, cybersecurity is a horizontal challenge and is not be limited to Horizon Europe Cluster 3. In addition to the calls of the Horizon Europe of Cluster 3 - Civil Security for Society, other activities relevant for Cybersecurity will be supported in particular in the Work Programme part of Cluster 4 - Digital, Industry and Space.

Research and innovation results may feed into the operational work on preparedness and response in the Joint Cyber Unit [[see section 2.1 in The EU's Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade, JOIN(2020) 18 final. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/GA/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020JC0018]].

Expected impacts:

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway contributing to the following impact of the Strategic Plan 2021-2024: "Increased cybersecurity and a more secure online environment by developing and using effectively EU and Member States’ capabilities in digital technologies supporting protection of data and networks aspiring to technological sovereignty in this field, while respecting privacy and other fundamental rights; this should contribute to secure services, processes and products, as well as to robust digital infrastructures capable to resist and counter cyber-attacks and hybrid threats".

More specifically, proposals should contribute to the achievement of one or more of the following impacts:

• Strengthened EU cybersecurity capacities and European Union sovereignty in digital technologies
• More resilient digital infrastructures, systems and processes
• Increased software, hardware and supply chain security
• Secured disruptive technologies
• Smart and quantifiable security assurance and certification shared across the EU
• Reinforced awareness and a common cyber security management and culture

Expected Outcome:

Projects are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

• Improved scalable and reliable privacy-preserving technologies for federated processing of personal data and their integration in real-world systems
• More user-friendly solutions for privacy-preserving processing of federated personal data registries by researchers
• Improving privacy-preserving technologies for cyber threat intelligence and data sharing solution
• Contribution to promotion of GDPR compliant European data spaces for digital services and research (in synergy with topic DATA-01-2021 of Horizon Europe Cluster 4)
• Strengthened European ecosystem of open source developers and researchers of privacy-preserving solutions

The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact.

Scope:

Using big data for digital services and scientific research brings about new opportunities and challenges. For example, machine learning methods process medical and behavioural data for finding causes and explanations for diseases or health risks. However, a large amount of this data is personal data. Leakage or abuse of this kind of data and potential privacy infringement (e.g. attribute disclosure or membership inference) risks are a cybersecurity threat to individuals, society and economy and an impediment for further developing data spaces involving personal data. Vice versa, adequate protection of this data according to the GDPR can also prevent its full utilization for society. Advanced privacy-preserving computation techniques such as homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation, and differential privacy are being researched and have proven promising to address these challenges. However, further research is required to ensure their applicability in real-world use case scenarios. For example, fully homomorphic encryption is not practically applicable in many cases and secure multi-party computation often imposes special infrastructural requirements.

Building on research and innovation in the area of privacy-preserving computation, proposals should address scalability and reliability of privacy-preserving technologies in realistic problem areas and take integration with existing infrastructures and traditional security measures (e.g. access control) into account. They should respond to users’ needs, e.g. for research and digital services in access and data management for citizens geared towards their own profiles (incl. dynamic personalised recommendations for improved cybersecurity) or in personalised medicine, taking into account the gender dimension where relevant. They should further address the legacy variation in personal data types and data models across different organisations in the same business sector and/or across different potential application sectors. A proposed solution should include validation or piloting of privacy-preserving computation in realistic federated data infrastructures and more specifically European data spaces involving personal data (e.g. the EU heath data space). It should be guided by the EU’s high standards concerning the right to privacy, protection of personal data, and the protection of fundamental rights in the digital age. It should ensure, by-design, compliance with data regulations and specifically the GDPR. Wherever possible, solutions should be developed as open source software.

Consortia should bring together interdisciplinary expertise and capacity covering the supply and the demand side, i.e. industry, service providers and end-users. Participation of SMEs is strongly encouraged. Legal expertise should also be incorporated to assess and ensure compliance of the technical project results with data regulations and the GDPR.

eligible non-EU countries:

• countries associated to Horizon Europe

• low-and middle-income countries

Legal entities which are established in countries not listed above will be eligible for funding if provided for in the specific call conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.

Specific cases:

• Affiliated entities - Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above.
• EU bodies - Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
• International organisations - International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. Unless their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority, other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’actions and when provided for in the specific call conditions.

Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call conditions , legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes:

• at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State;and
• at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Proposal page limits and layout:

The application form will have two parts:

• Part A to be filled in directly online  (administrative information, summarised budget, call-specific questions, etc.)
• Part B to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system

Page limit - Part B: 45 pages