The SECREDAS partners individually and collectively attend many conferences and fairs in which the SECREDAS project and its intermediate results are presented. Currently more than 100 such events have been registered and the number is increasing fast. Below is a brief overview of the main consortium activities.
The 2nd Annual Technical Review meeting with the European Commission and two external evaluators took place in an unusual setting: over 100 participants joined the 2-day meeting from all over Europe via virtual TEAMS connection.
For the most part the consortium had positive news to report, despite the challenges that the COVID19 pandemic has imposed on the project. All technical deliverables due in the second year were achieved and significant progress has been made. This was shown in 46 individual recordings of demonstrations and prototypes which each focussed on mitigating parts of the Use Case threats that were defined in deliverables D1.7 and D2.1. Thus far, the results have been very encouraging. In fact, in a number of cases the technology integration which is foreseen for year 3, is already underway. This is good news considering that SECREDAS’ final year is all about HW/SW integration between consortium partners and the subsequent live ‘on-the-road’ demonstration cycles using combinations of automated vehicles and drones (acting as automated vehicles) which will take place in Helmond (Netherlands), Modena (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and Lisbon (Portugal). An overview of the achieved YR2 results is shown in this presentation:
EFECs Progress Overview Presentation – Year 2
During the meeting, we discussed the main technical challenge of physically bringing different stand-alone technologies together for the purpose of further integration. Staff from partner organisations cannot meet due to the current travel restrictions throughout Europe. Virtual meetings can only go so far. It was explained to the Commission and the evaluators that integration planning is constantly being adapted, but that there is a chance that the project may need an extension beyond its current 3-year planning to complete the demonstration programme.
Another issue that was discussed, concerns the dissemination & exploitation actions that have been planned for the 2nd and 3rd year. Where the production of high-quality publications were on track and several patents have been files/approved, most of the planned exploitation actions involved physical presence at conferences and fairs. COVID19 made most of these actions during YR2 obsolete and the consortium have had to rethink its approach. This means that the planned stakeholder forum and the large survey of end-user expectations did not take place. They will be moved to the project’s final year of activity. The reviewers were also told that SECREDAS is working with the EU-funded RESULTS BOOSTER Programme and the CYBERWATCHING.EU Programme to redefine the exploitation strategy and to work closely with other projects in the cybersecurity domain to create a number of interesting webinars.
In all, the consortium conveyed the message that the project is in good shape to increase trust of end-users in the secure and safe functioning of today’s connected and tomorrow’s automated vehicles and that their privacy when using such vehicles is well guarded.
Note: public technical deliverables created during YR2 will be posted on this website as soon as they have been formally approved following the Annual Review process. This is expected to be at the end of November 2020.
The EFECS conference in Helsinki was used to build up closer ties to several other ECSEL projects and to establish closer collaboration with the Lighthouse Mobility.E initiative. We also organised our first stakeholder session to collect input what the major Security and Privacy concerns are from both users and developers of high-tech automated systems as they become more and more interconnected. The key-note speaker was Gerard Doll, the director of vehicle regulation and admission for the RDW (The Dutch Vehicle Authority). The interactive workshop collected concerns from different stakeholders such as certification bodies, governments, end-users, manufacturers, tier-1 suppliers and discussed directions for future solutions. The results feed directly into the work done by the different work packages.
The November consortium meeting in Munich (4/12/2019) focussed mainly on confirming and aligning the cross-work package groups to ensure a smooth transitioning of technical results. The partners also received detailed information on the technical requirements for inclusion of individual components and systems into the three main field tests. Overall we witnessed a further increase in the
SECREDAS was presented at the upcoming EFECS Conference in Bucharest. This time not with its own booth, as focus was on the project’s own annual consortium meeting in June, but several partners were present to represent the project. A poster was shown in the exhibition hall.
The first SECREDAS Newsletter came out in May. The newsletter is published every 3 months and sent to all project participants. A copy of each newsletter will also be placed on the website.
With a consortium of – now – 73 partners, the completion of the project Consortium Agreement was always bound to take a while. However, we did it! Congratulations to all partners who did excellent work and showed real commitment and constructive thinking!
SECREDAS was well-represented at the 2nd exhibition stage of the European Forum for Electronic Components and Systems 2018 (EFECS 2018) conference in Lisbon. The conference was held from 19-21 November and focussed on digital transformation by supporting the development of technology solutions along the entire Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) value chain.
The SECREDAS booth, located right at the entrance of the project exhibition hall, attracted significant attention, even though it was too soon for the project to be able to show any demonstrators. Many of the SECREDAS partners also attended the conference and used the booth as a convenient meeting point to establish interesting contacts.
A very successful second SECREDAS consortium meeting took place at IMEC in Leuven. Through plenary sessions and specific outbreak sessions, the activities of the 69 partner organisations across the 11 work packages was aligned. The summer break initially caused a delay in the start of some work packages; the consortium meeting was there to mitigate any potential knock-on effects and to confirm a new timetable that will allow the project as a whole to remain on track. Other points of discussion concerned some changes to the WorkPlan following the departure of german partner CommSolid (due to lack of national co-funding). The General Assembly gave its approval to the accession of two new partners, Stackforce and Exelonix, who have agreed to take over most of Commsolid’s activities, with existing partner Senetics covering the rest.
The ECSEL SECREDAS project has been launched! Following successful contract negotiations with the ECSEL Office, the consortium of 69 partner organisations met in Munich on 16-17 May 2018 to discuss the project work plan and assign specific tasks and responsibilities. Over €51 Million will be spent in three years to develop reference architecture for Secure and Safe Automated systems compliant with the new GDPR Regulation.
In addition, on the 19th June the project was presented in Brussels. At this occasion, Bert De Colvenaer, Executive Director of the ECSEL JU said that “SECREDAS is one of the first ECSEL JU funded projects which looks at security, safety and privacy across multiple application domains. The new European GDPR- regulation provides the opportunity to develop future technologies able to answer to urgent safety, security and privacy concerns. The ECSEL JU programme demonstrates once again its flexibility to take up new challenges”.
