New year, new projects, new NGI Sargasso Innovators!
Today is an important date in our calendar: we host the Welcome Session for the new 12 NGI Sargasso beneficiaries selected in our Open Call 4.
Back in the Summer, on the 1st of August at 17:00 CEST (10:00 CDT), we closed our Open Call 4 with 75 submitted projects to join us in our mission of creating the Next Generation Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach. External evaluators reviewed each of the applications, to finally select 12, that we invite you to discover in this article.
Today, these 12 teams start their Transatlantic journey with NGI Sargasso, materialized through our OnCampus Program, designed to incubate technological projects and foster a network of innovation professionals. The NGI Sargasso OnCampus includes several benefits, such as up to €100,000 equity-free funding, mentoring and coaching services, e-lessons and inspirational talks from industry and business experts, and access to international events.
Also, becoming an NGI Sargasso Innovator means becoming a member of the NGI – The Next Generation Internet Community.
Welcome aboard, NGI Sargasso Open Call 4 Innovators! Are you ready to start your Next Generation Internet Transatlantic journey?
1. Decoy-Auth: Zero-Knowledge Authentication with Compromise Detection
DecoyAuth will research, develop, and standardize an innovative zero-knowledge authentication protocol that supports decoy tokens. The decoy tokens act like a reverse honeypot, where usage of a stolen or leaked token indicates a security breach, triggering appropriate security measures.
Modern zero-knowledge authentication protocols, such as Dragonfly, only successfully complete when using the correct (unique) authentication token. Decoy-Auth will extend Dragonfly to support multiple authentication tokens, enabling authentication using different tokens, including a decoy token. The decoy token acts as a reverse honeypot: its usage indicates a security breach. Their protocol is inspired by industry demand and will be openly designed, developed and standardized to ensure interoperability.
- Partners: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and Alta Labs, SoundVision Technologies (USA).
- Duration: 9 months.
2. MC-DIW: Micro-Credentials and Digital Identity Wallets
Micro-Credentials and Digital Identity Wallets (MC-DIW) is a research project that explores the BC Wallet and EUDIW to develop an interoperable micro-credential system between the EU and Canada to enhance lifelong learning and higher education and fostering international collaboration.
Their previous project EBSI-CAN (NGI Sargasso Innovator from our Open Call 1) recommended focusing on a EUROPEUM digital credentialing pilot in British Columbia’s education sector. MC-DIW leverages on recommendation 1 of EBSI-CAN to examine the feasibility of an interoperable micro-credential system using BC Wallet and the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) to bridge the gap between Canadian and European digital identity solutions and trust models while monitoring business and technical developments with the EUROPEUM EDIC.
- Partners: The Commonwealth Centre for Connected Learning Foundation – 3CL Foundation (Malta) and The Commonwealth of Learning (Canada).
- Duration: 3 months.
3. SeEDS: Secure and Efficient Data Spaces
The SeEDS project will implement a flexible, efficient and secure data space over the NDN architecture, offering self-sovereign, trustworthy, and privacy-preserving data sharing, while taking advantage of the advanced communication paradigms offered by the underlay NDN network.
The SeEDS project will implement an ETSI compliant data space over the Named-Data Networking (NDN) ICN architecture. SeEDS will exploit the advanced capabilities of NDN to implement flexible and efficient data management and discovery, subscriptions to data events, as well as temporal data queries. At the same time, it will provide a trust management framework that will support in-network security and privacy operations, including data integrity verification and selective content revelation.
- Partners: Athens University of Economics and Business – Research Center (Greece) and The University of Memphis (USA).
- Duration: 9 months.
4. FRQGAN4AD: Federated and Robust Quantum Generative Adversarial Networks for Anomaly Detection in Future Internet
The project is devoted to exploiting Quantum Generative AI to improve anomaly detection when analyzing traffic traces to identify attacks in the Next-Generation Internet and devise a federated and robust approach to cope with the quantum noise and the large scale of the network under analysis.
Monitoring the network behavior for intrusion detection is needed to find anomalies in what is assumed as “normal” behavior and detect possible attacks. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have successfully detected such anomalies but also suffer from high false alarm rates. These innovators aim to investigate how quantum computing can improve GAN and how to have a federated approach to QGAN in large networks that have a wide variety of traffic and are susceptible to a large number of potential attacks.
- Partners: University of Salerno (Italy) and École de Technologie Supérieure de Montréal (Canada).
- Duration: 9 months.
5. SmartBreath: AI Based SmartBreath Cloud
A comprehensive respiratory care platform to prevent respiratory complications in both hospital settings and at the point of care. The AI-based SmartBreath Cloud aims to enhance patient outcomes by leveraging real-time respiratory and pulmonary data collected through incentive spirometers.
Respiratory complications such as pneumonia lead to hospitalization, extended stays, higher readmission rates, morbidity, and mortality. Standard therapy uses an incentive spirometer (IS) to expand the lungs and reduce fluid buildup. However, patient compliance with IS is low, a crucial factor for successful outcomes. Furthermore, respiratory and pulmonary data are often siloed, limiting the ability to derive actionable insights and improve patient care across clinical settings.
- Partners: Soluciones Sosteco SL (Spain) and Sonoma State University (USA).
- Duration: 9 months.
6. DIDroom Uni Credentials: DIDroom for University Transatlantic Credential
Full identity and credential solution (dashboard, wallet and verifier app, microservices) for interoperable university credentials, interoperable between EU and Canada, supporting W3C-DID, W3C-VC, EUDI-ARF and BBS, built based on DIDroom and universities’ requirements.
The solution developed by this project extends DIDroom to build a use case for digital identity and credentials that is interoperable for universities in Canada/USA and Europe. This Transatlantic team will build the use case based on input from the University of British Columbia, and partners in Europe and Norway, including a list of features, the specs for integration and interoperability, and the user base, to adapt the DIDroom solution accordingly.
- Partners: Forkbomb BV (Netherlands) and University of British Columbia (Canada).
- Duration: 9 months.
7. MDIP: Medications Data Interoperability Project
The Medications Data Interoperability Project (MDIP) intends to provide a ‘single source of truth’ for medications data internationally by using a future-proof data architecture incorporating AI, ontologies and blockchain, enriched by pharmacogenomic data, to improve patient safety globally.
Medications data is vital to patient safety and public health costs reduction yet few countries have comprehensive open access databases at reasonable cost. MDIP will show the relative simplicity and low cost of linking related medications across jurisdictions by using new technologies (ontology management using AI and blockchain for provenance). This NGI Sargasso project will create an open access website that links official medications data across EU, Canada and UK with pharmacogenomic (PGx) “flags”.
- Partners: Dynaccurate SARL (Luxembourg) and Pillcheck Inc (Canada).
- Duration: 9 months.
8. QRISTIN: Quantum Routines In Space-Terrestrial Integrated Networks
The QRISTIN project seeks to harness the power of quantum algorithms to tackle intricate combinatorial optimization problems within space terrestrial integrated networks (STINs), specifically focusing on improving resource management and routing strategies.
The QRISTIN project leverages quantum algorithms to address complex combinatorial optimization challenges within STIN. While STIN offers inherent advantages like flexibility and larger bandwidth over terrestrial networks, integrating satellite networks efficiently poses challenges, particularly in developing algorithms for resource management and routing strategies. Quantum computing’s ability to solve hard computational problems complements classical solutions, making it a promising choice.
- Partners: Fondazione LINKS – Leading Innovation & Knowledge for Society (Italy) and QuEra computing Inc (USA).
- Duration: 9 months.
9. DIDSSI: Blockchain-based Decentralized and Self-Sovereign Identities
The project aims to develop a blockchain-based decentralized identity protocol that will enable support for self-sovereign identities. In such a system, individuals have complete control over their personal information and over the information they share to prove their identities/credentials.
The project builds the foundation of a trusted blockchain-based distributed system for decentralized identities (DIDs) and self-sovereign identities (SSIs), initially focused on Europe-USA student exchange programs. By attracting more universities and students in mobility exchanges, it will generate a positive economic and social impact. The core of the system relies on a series of smart contracts that provide trust services and manage the registries needed for the system operation.
- Partners: “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi (Romania) and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (USA).
- Duration: 9 months.
10. CADP: Cooperative Agri-Data Portal / Portail Coopératif des Données Agricoles
The ‘Cooperative Agri-Data Portal’ (CADP) enables seamless, secure, decentralized data sharing and interoperability in agrifood short supply chains using open semantic standards and Solid-OIDC authentication, providing real-time aggregated data and analytics for farms, hubs, and logistics players.
The ‘Cooperative Agri-Data Portal’ (CADP), is designed to catalyze interoperability in agrifood short supply chains, by enabling farms and hubs to seamlessly share and federate data. It uses open semantic standards and Solid-OIDC authentication to provide a secure, decentralized data sharing infrastructure that aggregates supply chain data from diverse agrifood platforms in real time, providing food hubs, farms, and logistics players with dynamic decentralized procurement and analytics tools.
- Partners: CoopCircuits (France) and Conseil Québécois de la Coopération et de la Mutualité (Canada).
- Duration: 9 months.
11. Taler-OIM: Bridging the Literate Divide in Digital Payments
To attain digital financial inclusion requires modern schooling. Evidence shows that about a billion adults, including many Europeans, cannot read or write numbers longer than 2 digits. GNU Taler with ‘OIM inside’ will design a usable payment app for this vulnerable population.
Taler Systems SA is developing a new digital payment protocol for privacy-preserving cash-like transactions. Taler’s payment system improves usability in digital payments as it avoids the need for the payer to authenticate to third parties. My Oral Village specializes in making financial products accessible for illiterate and innumerate adults using Oral Information Management (OIM). By combining this research, Taler-OIM will create an even more inclusive payment solution.
- Partners: Taler Systems SA (Luxembourg) and My Oral Village Inc (Canada).
- Duration: 9 months.
12. INN: Identity Network of Networks
Interoperable identity: enabling cross-border digital trust.
This project aims at developing a technical blueprint for a “Network of Networks” to enable cross-border interoperability of digital identity while minimizing any central infrastructure and governance.
- Partners: Secure Identity Alliance (Belgium) and OpenID Foundation (USA).
- Duration: 3 months.