ExpectedOutcome:
Outcomes and deliverables
Proposals should aim to strengthen Europe's efforts on the transition to PQC by supporting European and international standardisation activities, delivering a comprehensive European PQC industrial migration roadmap and raise awareness regarding PQC endeavours. This should be achieved in particular through the following strategic actions:
Proposals are expected to engage in concrete standardisation efforts within both European and international standardisation forums, where PQC will play a pivotal role in the near future and where progress in standardisation will augment existing cybersecurity capabilities and create a competitive edge upon Europe. Also, in alignment with projects resulting from the topic "Transition to Quantum-Resistant Cryptography" (call HORIZON-CL3-2022-CS-01-03) and the topic Deployment of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) systems in industrial sectors (in this work programme), the proposals will incorporate practical strategies to coordinate and synergise European research and innovation endeavours with PQC standardisation initiatives.
To this end, proposals should establish a proactive presence and take on leadership roles in orchestrating and shaping international standards and regulations for PQC. This can either be in existing standardisation activities and bodies or, where relevant, by contributing to creating new standardisation activities in existing groups and/or creation of new groups.
Proposals should cultivate a cohesive European PQC community, fostering collaboration among academic and industrial stakeholders, and engage in a structured dialogue on various fora. This will entail harmonising activities across European, national, and regional programs and projects, and pave the way for synergetic innovation efforts in PQC to help unlock use-cases for practical cybersecurity applications in Europe.
Proposals should bring together key stakeholders across the entire PQC value chain. This holistic approach should encompass researchers, standardisation experts and representatives from industry sectors. A comprehensive outline should be provided in the proposal, detailing the stakeholders to be engaged and the methodologies to efficiently coordinate their efforts at the European level in order to achieve impactful outcomes that effectively promote European interests in PQC standardisation.
Furthermore, the proposals will strive to establish constructive dialogues with international PQC programmes and promote international cooperation activities. Emphasis should be placed on collaborative exchanges between key international participants, including the EU and countries such as the USA, exploiting complementary strengths and challenges and fostering mutually beneficial outcomes in standardisation efforts.
This action aims at supporting stakeholders dealing with technologies that will be used to protect the cybersecurity of critical industrial assets with a new paradigm that is set to be a game changer in encryption. The control of such tools is of utmost importance for governments and industry alike, as they could be exploited by malicious actors. As such, they must be protected against possible dependencies and vulnerabilities in cybersecurity to pre-empt foreign influence and control. Participation of non-EU entities entails the risk of highly sensitive information about security infrastructure, risks and incidents being subject to legislation or pressure that obliges those non-EU entities to disclose this information to non-EU governments, with an unpredictable security risk. Therefore, based on the outlined security reasons, the actions relating to these technologies are subject to Article 12(5) of Regulation (EU) 2021/694.