During the last years we are witnessing an ever increasing number of Internet-based marketplaces that capitalize on the unused capacity of assets they already possess, while consumers can receive services from their peers owning assets either for free or at a lower cost. At the same time, the emergence of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts have enabled new distributed application ecosystems, e.g., Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Stellar, Waves, etc., where new services can be deployed with low-entry market barriers, due to minimal infrastructure costs and decentralized and secure transaction management. Innovative business models arise where part of the value generated by these distributed apps is fed back to the distributed blockchain community, as remuneration for their contribution of computational resources. Companies and organizations still require trust: they need to understand their user base, verify identity, manage digital assets, and control trust issuance within their ecosystem. To maximize the market impact of this new economic environment, OntoChain aims to enable trustworthy transactions of services and content. OntoChain will define innovative decentralized reputation models that reveal hidden quality and/or type of providers/services, or credibility of data sources, while adequately balancing the trade-off between privacy and trust. OntoChain will enable trustworthy and traceable content handling where authorized parties can process data according to the privacy policies of the data owners. At the same time, it will build an economically sustainable ecosystem, where the total value generated in the system, in terms of profit or well-being, surpasses the total operational costs in terms of electricity consumption. In order to sustain the user community, OntoChain will aim on fair sharing of the generated value among resource contributors and provide appropriate incentives to the user community for participation.

The overall objective of TrustChain is to create a portfolio of Next Generation Internet protocols and an ecosystem of decentralised software solutions that reach the highest standards of humanity such as those chartered by the United Nations including the respect of human rights, ethics, sustainability, energy efficiency, our care for the environment and our respect for the World’s cultural history. TrustChain will tackle several challenges pertaining to trustworthy and reliable digital identity, to resilient, secure and reliable data pathways, to economics and trading of data, to energy efficiency for data storage, transport and sharing, to seamless services and data flows. A new trustworthy data governance and sharing model in line with the European regulatory framework and taking into account European values will be developed that will ensure Trusted Data Ecosystems. Third party top Internet innovators will be selected through 5 open calls focus on topics of the (1) Decentralised digital identity, (2) the User privacy and data governance, (3) Economics and democracy, (4) Multi chains support for NGI protocols, and (5) Green scalable and sustainable DLTs, which is an essential need of the day. TrustChain addresses the second research area of the Human 01-03 call in particular to tackle the current limitations of decentralised technologies, such as Blockchain and DLT, including those related to scalability, interoperability, energy efficiency, privacy or security, in order to make them dependable building blocks of the future Internet. TrustChain will explore DLT-based solutions, enabling the exploitation of data coming from a high number and various types of sources, eliminating data silos through decentralised and interoperable approaches, while helping individuals and organisations better govern their data when they participate in joint value chains where cooperating partners can also be competitors.

Addressing critical challenges such as population displacement due to conflicts, exacerbated by factors like climate change, extreme weather events, food shortages, and poverty, remains paramount. The implementation of THEIA, integrating data fusion, processing, and analysis, particularly leveraging Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) and Machine Learning, is poised to enhance the efficacy of existing services significantly. Through the amalgamation of multi-temporal data and diverse datasets, THEIA empowers better decision-making and adapts to evolving policy and user needs. This technological advancement, bolstered by GeoAI, augments detection capabilities and ensures timely access to crucial information, bridging the gap between capabilities and stringent security demands. By integrating non-space data and end-user intelligence, THEIA’s supply chains add value not only at the operational level but also at regional and local levels, facilitating improved coordination. Furthermore, THEIA catalyzes fostering EU-independent capabilities and technologies, thereby bolstering the European space ecosystem's consolidation and ensuring the sustainable coexistence of legacy and New-Space solutions. Its services cater to a wide array of end-users, including EU entities such as SatCen and Frontex, Member State Ministries of Defence, Intelligence Agencies, Police Forces, NATO, and potentially Extra-EU National and Supranational Entities such as the United Nations.

CryptoACTION represents Europe’s most ambitious attempt to date in equipping LEAs with mission-appropriate tools to support investigations pertaining to Cryptocurrency-Facilitated Crime and Terrorism (CFCT) activities (money laundering, darknet marketplaces) improve investigation operations including external collaboration workflows and provide comprehensive training curricula for LEAs/prosecutors/judiciary and the world’s first cryptorange. It will deliver an ecosystem of independent but interoperable lawful-investigation tools offering AI co-piloting capabilities to enhance investigator efficiency and supporting the intelligent corelation of blockchain data, structured data from anti-CFCT databases, text, audio and visual data modalities, stemming from lawful surveillance activities and darknet/deepnet/clearnet scraping. It will address technologies/mechanisms that hinder LEA investigations into CFCT, such as TOR, mixers, DEXs, Monero and other privacy coins, etc. both head on and laterally, taking advantage of weaknesses in design/implementation vulnerabilities or human errors on the side of criminals and lawful multi-modal intelligence gathering provided by the tools it will develop and/or enhance. Consortium LEAs will co-design and help validate the CryptoACTION LEA tools and support additional LEA engagement via organising collaborative capacity building workshops based on CryptoACTION training courses and tools. CryptoACTION will take a holistic view of the CFCT landscape and the anti-CFCT efforts, both at the beginning, to guide project efforts, and upon its conclusion, to provide recommendations for further actions, including potential recommendation for regulation and for moving away from cryptocurrency analysis tools giving black-box results to tools, such as those CryptoACTION will deliver, that offer explanations for their results (including any assumptions and uncertainties) and embrace the 7 EU principles of trustworthy AI.

iCROSS envisages to enable faster thorough border control for third country nationals crossing the borders of EU, with technologies that adopt the future development of the Schengen Border Management. The project will present an optimal mixture of an enhanced, voluntary form of a Registered Traveller Programme and an auxiliary solution for the Entry/Exit System based on involving bona fide travellers. iCROSS designs and implements a system that adopts mobility concepts and consists of a two-stage procedure, designed to reduce cost/time spent per traveller at the crossing station. It leverages software and hardware technologies ranging from portable readers/scanners, various emerging and novel subsystems for automatic controls, wireless networking for mobile controls, and secure backend storage and processing. The two-stage procedure includes: (A) the registration before the travel to gather initial personal, travel document and vehicle data, perform a short, automated, non-invasive interview with an avatar, subject to lie detection and link the traveller to any pre-existing authority data. Utilizing multifactor analytics and risk-based approach, the data registered is processed and correlated with publicly open data or external systems such as the SIS II. Processing will need the travellers consent as set in EU legislation and national law. (B) the actual control at the border that complements pre-registered information with results of security controls that are performed with a portable, wireless connected iCROSS unit that can be used inside buses/trains or any point. Multiple technologies check validity and authenticity of parameters (e.g. travel documents, visa, face recognition of traveller using passport picture, real-time automated non-invasive lie detection in interview by officer, etc.). The data collected are encrypted, securely transferred and analysed in real time, providing an automated decision support system for the border control officers.