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About The Open call #2 - CLOSED

Calling all developers, innovators, researchers, SMEs and entrepreneurs!
€1.989.000 will be distributed among (up to) 17 selected projects!

Trustworthy online platforms that preserve user’s data privacy and provide strong data governance frameworks are the focus of this TrustChain Open Call 2 (OC2) on “User Privacy and Data Governance”.

This Open Call 2 welcomes applications that will clearly define, upgrade/extend the state-of-the-art, and develop the following types of solutions:  

  • Enhanced Consent profiles to implement transparent and user-friendly consent mechanisms that clearly explain how user data will be collected, used, and shared. A mechanism to provide users the ability to form informed consent and easily manage their privacy preferences in data sharing models.
  • Data Minimization and Purpose Limitation techniques built in the web framework so that only necessary data is collected for legitimate purposes. Data owners should have means to share only data necessary to access a particular service.
  • Secure data exchange and privacy-aware data processing must be the cornerstone of the new data economy. Privacy of training data, machine-learning models and model parameters should be aimed for. [1]
  • Developing new privacy preserving data flow techniques in line with international data sharing agreements (e.g., EU Data Spaces) so that the user has choice to tune data parameters for trading/sharing of data.
  • Develop new mechanisms in line with the international data flows standards so that the data can move freely within the EU and across international borders including USA, Japan and China.
  • Data identification, data provenance, data tracking mechanisms should be built so that the data that is exchanged can be tracked. Handling of the data according to the user consent provided in a data exchange should be verifiable.
  • Data certification/verification methods should be developed to verify the trustworthiness of the data.
  • Modern privacy enhancing technologies, such as local differential privacy and other interactive privacy techniques, taking also into account online publicly available datasets that can be linked to the original data.
  • Data obfuscation, perturbation and anonymization techniques or their combination that properly address the trade-off between privacy-preservation and data utility.
 

[1]https://plg.eu.com/the-cross-border-data-flow-the-oecd-report-for-the-g7-digital-and-technology-pathway/https://plg.eu.com/the-cross-border-data-flow-the-oecd-report-for-the-g7-digital-and-technology-pathway/

The above system examples are only indicative, and applicants can propose solutions that integrate one or more of them. Applicants can also submit a proposal under a different example scenario, as long as it serves the overall TrustChain vision and objectives, while also fitting within the scope of human centric decentralised trustworthy Next Generation Internet protocols.

Proposed solutions should utilize existing concepts and technologies already developed for data value sharing and preserving user-privacy and fit within TrustChain’s vision and objectives. The solutions should:  

  • be provided as open-source software ,
  • tested and evaluated by an adequate pool of potential end-users that should be identified and mentioned in the application
  • supported by a self-sustaining business model for exploiting the developed system at the end of the project.

 

Each proposed solution will have to use the latest technologies for full-stack development that are compatible with the current standards.

Phases of the Open CALL #2

Proposals are submitted in a single stage and the evaluation process is composed of three phases as presented hereafter:

  • Phase 1: Admissibility & eligibility check
  • Phase 2: Proposals evaluation carried out by the TrustChain Consortium with the assistance of independent experts.
  • Phase 3: Online interviews (10 minutes pitching & 20 minutes of Q&As) and final selection carried out by the TrustChain Consortium and the TrustChain Advisory Board Members.

As part of the TrustChain action, experts in diverse fields will also provide to Third party innovators selected technology development guidance, working methodology as well as access to technical infrastructure, training in business model development and data related topics, coaching, mentoring, visibility and community building support.

Selected projects will last for a duration of 9 months. However, the TrustChain overall action lasts 36 months, and the selected projects are requested to participate after these 9 months in future Joint Meetings for knowledge and know-how transfer to TrustChain OC3-5 and for the development of the TrustChain ecosystem.

HOW TO APPLY?

Open Calls will be handled using the F6S platform.

The call is open for submission from July 20, 2023 until September 20, 2023 (17:00 Brussels time). Its indicative budget is €1.989.000 with up to a maximum of 17 proposals funded.

Eligibility

The target applicants of this call are developers, innovators, researchers, SMEs, and entrepreneurs working on different NGI relevant topics and application domains at the intersection between the technical field (e.g., Software Engineering, Network Security, Semantic Web, Cryptography, Blockchain, Digital Twin, Blockchain Security, Digital Identity, Blockchain Protocol), the Social sciences and Humanities (e.g., Social Innovation, not-for-profit sector, Social Entrepreneurship, public goods) as well as any others including economics, environment, art, design, which can contribute to the NGI TrustChain relevant vision.

Applicants can apply as individuals or linked to a legal entity. Hence, the participation is possible in several ways:

  • Team of natural person(s):

Team of individuals, all established in any eligible country. This does not consider the country of origin but the residence permit.

  • Legal entity(ies):

One or more entities (consortium) established in an eligible country.

The entities can be Universities, Research centres, Non-Governmental Organisations, Foundations, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises [2], large enterprises working on Internet or/and other related technologies are eligible.

[2] see definition of SME according to the European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC

 

  • Any combination of the above.

In addition, the following conditions apply:

  • The participating entities should not have been declared bankrupt or have initiated bankruptcy procedures.
  • The entities or individuals (Team of natural persons) applying should not have convictions for fraudulent behaviour, other financial irregularities, and unethical or illegal business practices.

 

Only Applicants legally established/resident in any of the following countries (hereafter collectively identified as the “Eligible Countries”) are eligible:

  • The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions. 
  • The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the Member States [3]; 
  • Horizon Europe associated countries, as described in the Reference Documents and the List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe according to the latest list published by the European Commission.
 

[3] Entities from Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) are eligible for funding under the same conditions as entities from the Member States to which the OCT in question is linked.

SUPPORTED MATERIAL AND KIT FOR APPLICATION

TRUSTCHAIN was launched in January 2023 to address the inherent challenges within the current centralised Internet architecture that is not transparent to the user, does not protect the privacy-by -default and does not scale well through 5 Open Calls and an overall budget of 8,775 M €.

Learn more about the TrustChain project

  • The TrustChain Open Call 2

This document is the open call announcement.

The TrustChain Open Call 2

  • The TrustChain Open Call #2 Guide for applicants

This document provides in detail the information to help apply to the TrustChain Open Call 2 such as an abstract of the TrustChain action, a description of the TrustChain Open Call 2, the modalities for application, the evaluation process, the scheme of the funding support, the IPR aspects related to TrustChain and how to prepare and submit a proposal:

The TrustChain Guide for applicants

This document also contains in annex the Administrative forms preparation template, the proposal description template and the TrustChain additional applicant’s template.

  • The TrustChain Open Call #2 Application material

 

Note: Word templates (Annex D and Annex E) are available at the F6S Submission System.

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