Recent trends in industrial technology and the adaptation of Industrial Internet of Things (ΙIοΤ), has emerged by the convergence of Operations Technology (i.e., traditional hardware and software systems) and Information Technology (i.e., advanced computing, data aggregation/analysis, and ubiquitous communication systems). IIoT has great potential to enable significant advances in optimizing operations among large number of increasingly autonomous control systems and devices, and can have a profound impact on many industry domains, where smart factories and logistics are among most notable cases. However, a major barrier towards IIoT adoption lies in cybersecurity issues that makes it extremely difficult to harness its full potential: IIoT systems dramatically increase the attack surface (introducing new security threats due to newly connected devices and protocols, making them more vulnerable to interference), the disruption of process controls, the theft of intellectual property, the loss of corporate data, and the industrial espionage. C4IIoT will build and demonstrate a novel and unified IIoT cybersecurity framework for malicious and anomalous behavior anticipation, detection, mitigation, and end-user informing. The framework provides a holistic and disruptive security-enabling solution for minimizing attack surfaces in IIoT systems, by exploiting i) emerging security software and hardware protection mechanisms; ii) state of the art machine and deep learning and privacy-aware analytics; iii) novel encrypted network flow analysis; iv) secure-by-design IIoT device fabrication; and v) blockchain technologies, to provide a viable scheme for enabling security and accountability, preserving privacy, enabling reliability and assuring trustworthiness within IIoT applications. The C4IIoT framework will be demonstrated and validated on two carefully selected use cases in real world environments, namely Enabling security IIoT in i) Inbound Logistics and ii) a Smart Factory

SmartShip aims to bring together Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) of focused Universities, Research Institutions and Companies oriented into the maritime sector in order to build a holistic integrated ICT-based framework for the sustainable, individualized and completely automated energy management of ships. To accomplish this, it will take advantage of all the know-how that the consortium brings to the project referring to ICT technologies such as Data Analytics, IoT exploitation, DSS use, visualization tools, optimization algorithms and tools and Circular Economy approach methods. Smartship aims to offer a multi-layer optimization in the fields of fuel consumption, energy efficiency and emissions control management, in full respect to the implementation of the requirements of maritime sector regulations and taking into account applications of circular economy concepts in the maritime as well. Knowledge exchange between the partners that are already involved in the maritime sector, the ICT technology industry partners and the academia partners is one of the major Smartship’s objectives and will be materialised through corresponding secondments during the whole project’s timeplan. These synergies aim to build stronger collaboration relationships between the partners with respect to their future exploitation beyond Smartship project. Summing up Smartship will capitalise on available COTS technologies and will deliver an ICT & IoT-enabled holistic cloud-based maritime performance & monitoring system, for the entire lifecycle of a ship, aimed to optimise energy efficiency, emissions reduction and fuel consumption, whist introducing circular economy concepts in the maritime field.

MOSAIC addresses a grand challenge for European competitiveness: technological independence and filled fabs in the landscape of automated systems. By fostering innovation in Electronic Components and Systems (ECS), MOSAIC aims to propel Europe to excellence and digital autonomy, directly linked to the EU Chips Act. The project achieves this through a comprehensive strategy. It will develop next-generation ECS offering superior, cognitive system intelligence, enabling energy efficiency and robustness. These results will be tailored to the demands of automated systems, enabling rapid data processing and intuitive, AI-enabled decision- making. MOSAIC tackles the challenge of integrating diverse perception hardware configurations, ensuring that automated systems can perceive their surroundings in a non-invasive manner, avoiding a single point of failure, with unparalleled accuracy and decreased complexity. Additionally, the project emphasizes standardized communication protocols and interoperability, fostering a collaborative ecosystem across several industries, namely automotive, aerospace, maritime, industrial automation and infrastructures. By spearheading such advancements, MOSAIC empowers European ECS manufacturers to gain a competitive advantage. The project's achievements will be demonstrated in 31 cutting-edge technical showcases, indicatively global perception through 360° distributed radar, AI-enabled reasoning through magnetic field signature and resilient communications by means of non-terrestrial networks. 2 accompanying impact studies, will solidify Europe's position as a global leader in automated systems. MOSAIC leverages a pan-European consortium encompassing the entire ECS value chain, ensuring a comprehensive effort towards filling the European fabs and ensuring digital sovereignty. In essence, MOSAIC is an investment in Europe's future – a secure digital future of technological leadership, economic prosperity, and strategic independence.

Over 25 million European SMEs/MEs, central within EU enterprise policy, face multiple challenges related to personal data protection; ranging from awareness, to a clear and practical roadmap to compliance, the most prominent one is the fact that, unlike larger enterprises, SMEs/MEs lack access to enterprise-grade cybersecurity technology and capacity-building for compliance, making them increasingly often victims of costly data breaches. Although, according to studies, small and micro businesses declare openness to invest in regulatory compliance, including for consultants and technology, millions of European SMEs/MEs still fail to comply with GDPR while their managers are confused about basic data security concepts, like data stewardship, encryption and secure communication. This presents a clear gap between cybersecurity- and privacy-related spending and its actual effect in personal data protection compliance. SENTINEL aspires to bridge this gap by boosting SMEs/MEs capabilities in this domain through innovation, at a cost-effective level. SENTINEL will integrate tried-and-tested modular cybersecurity technologies with fresh, ambitious ones, such as a novel Identity Management System for human-centric data portability, enabling a unified “European Data Space” and an end-to-end digital personal data protection compliance self-assessment framework for SMEs, into a unified digital architecture. The data from these modules will then undergo disruptive Intelligence for Compliance through SENTINEL’s digital core, featuring machine learning-powered recommendations, policy drafting & enforcement for compliance and a ‘one-stop-shop’ incident response centre. Combined with a well-researched methodology for application, an open knowledge sharing hub and a wide-reaching plan for experimentation, SENTINEL will catalyse adoption of market-leading security tech among SMEs/MEs and help safeguard their and their customers’ assets.

EdgeAI is as a key initiative for the European digital transition towards intelligent processing solutions at the edge. EdgeAI will develop new electronic components and systems, processing architectures, connectivity, software, algorithms, and middleware through the combination of microelectronics, AI, embedded systems, and edge computing. EdgeAI will ensure that Europe has the necessary tools, skills, and technologies to enable edge AI as a viable alternative deployment option to legacy centralised solutions, unlocking the potential of ubiquitous AI deployment, with the long-term objective of Europe taking the lead of Intelligent Edge. EdgeAI will contribute to the Green Deal twin transition with a systemic, cross-sectoral approach, and will deliver enhanced AI-based electronic components and systems, edge processing platforms, AI frameworks and middleware. It will develop methodologies to ease, advance and tailor the design of edge AI technologies by co-ordinating efforts across 48 of the brightest and best R&D organizations across Europe. It will demonstrate the applicability of the developed approaches across a variety of vertical solutions, considering security, trust, and energy efficiency demands inherent in each of these use cases. EdgeAI will significantly contribute to the grand societal challenge to increase the intelligent processing capabilities at the edge.