European Union4 days leftNon-profit, Private Business, Research Institution, Public Institution, Other
Transition to post-quantum Public Key Infrastructures
Strengthening the Cybersecurity Ecosystem (DIGITAL-ECCC-2025-DEPLOY-CYBER-08)
Funding Amount
Amount not specified
Deadline
07/10/2025
Eligible Organization Types
Non-profit, Private Business, Research Institution, Public Institution, Other
Trusted by
What is the Transition to post-quantum Public Key Infrastructures Call?
Grant Description
This call supports the design, testing and deployment of post-quantum cryptography in Public Key Infrastructures. It addresses the need for migration strategies that combine pre-quantum and post-quantum schemes to ensure business continuity and strong security against quantum threats. Funded activities include developing signature and key-encapsulation combiners, evaluating hybrid certificates in protocols, creating open-source libraries, defining key-management procedures, testing X.509 uses an...
Required Results for Successful Funding
Expected Outcomes
- New quantum-secure cryptographic combiners delivering at least 128-bit security against quantum adversaries.
• Experimental evaluations of hybrid certificate deployments in multiple standard protocols, including performance, security and backward-compatibility analyses, delivered via open-source libraries.
• Release of new or improved open-source libraries covering certificate lifecycle: requests, issuance, validation, revocation and privacy-friendly certificate transparency.
• Published, end-to-end key management procedures detailing secure signature generation, validation processes and signature lifecycle tracking.
• Test reports on specialised X.509 usages (e.g., firmware signing, device integrity) and on alternative certificate schemes with implementation prototypes.
• Novel protocols for Automatic Certificate Management and privacy-friendly certificate-transparency, with contributions to relevant standards.
• Deployment guidelines (“recipes”) and migration frameworks for hybrid PQC PKIs across critical sectors, enabling business-continuity and defence against downgrade attacks.
• Stakeholder awareness raised through training courses and knowledge-transfer events, enhancing capacity across the PKI ecosystem.
• Experimental evaluations of hybrid certificate deployments in multiple standard protocols, including performance, security and backward-compatibility analyses, delivered via open-source libraries.
• Release of new or improved open-source libraries covering certificate lifecycle: requests, issuance, validation, revocation and privacy-friendly certificate transparency.
• Published, end-to-end key management procedures detailing secure signature generation, validation processes and signature lifecycle tracking.
• Test reports on specialised X.509 usages (e.g., firmware signing, device integrity) and on alternative certificate schemes with implementation prototypes.
• Novel protocols for Automatic Certificate Management and privacy-friendly certificate-transparency, with contributions to relevant standards.
• Deployment guidelines (“recipes”) and migration frameworks for hybrid PQC PKIs across critical sectors, enabling business-continuity and defence against downgrade attacks.
• Stakeholder awareness raised through training courses and knowledge-transfer events, enhancing capacity across the PKI ecosystem.
Funded areas
Scope Requirements
Proposals must:
• Target post-quantum integration in Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs) with efficient migration strategies and business-continuity guarantees.
• Address functions including key establishment, digital signatures and secure communications, carefully adapting pre-quantum protocols to post-quantum counterparts.
• Safeguard compatibility with legacy systems via selectively disableable PQC components and strongest-link combiners to prevent downgrade or single-point failures.
• Cover a broad range of application domains (governmental services, telecom, banking, e-Health, automotive, smart homes, etc.) and critical societal processes.
• Develop clear transition procedures and guidelines for all PKI stakeholders (CAs, intermediate CAs, researchers, vendors, end-users).
• Form consortia with multi-disciplinary expertise along the entire PKI value chain (software development, hardware implementation, cryptographic research, standardisation, policy, application deployment, end-user case studies).
• Consider security level (≥128-bit), performance (latency, throughput, key/signature/ciphertext size), storage/computational overhead and hardware optimisation.
• Include testing of both deployment complexity with coexistence of old/new configurations and specialised platform constraints (IoT, smartcards, identity documents).
• Target post-quantum integration in Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs) with efficient migration strategies and business-continuity guarantees.
• Address functions including key establishment, digital signatures and secure communications, carefully adapting pre-quantum protocols to post-quantum counterparts.
• Safeguard compatibility with legacy systems via selectively disableable PQC components and strongest-link combiners to prevent downgrade or single-point failures.
• Cover a broad range of application domains (governmental services, telecom, banking, e-Health, automotive, smart homes, etc.) and critical societal processes.
• Develop clear transition procedures and guidelines for all PKI stakeholders (CAs, intermediate CAs, researchers, vendors, end-users).
• Form consortia with multi-disciplinary expertise along the entire PKI value chain (software development, hardware implementation, cryptographic research, standardisation, policy, application deployment, end-user case studies).
• Consider security level (≥128-bit), performance (latency, throughput, key/signature/ciphertext size), storage/computational overhead and hardware optimisation.
• Include testing of both deployment complexity with coexistence of old/new configurations and specialised platform constraints (IoT, smartcards, identity documents).
Additional Conditions for Applicants
Special Conditions
- Topic subject to Article 12(5) of Regulation (EU) 2021/694: participation of non-EU entities is restricted due to security risks of disclosure under non-EU legislation.
• Proposals must comply with admissibility and eligibility conditions (page limits, layout, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity, exclusion criteria) as per Call Document sections 5–7.
• Evaluation procedures, award criteria, scoring thresholds and timelines are defined in Call Document section 8–9 and the Online Manual.
• Legal and financial setup in accordance with Call Document section 10 and the Model Grant Agreement (DEP MGA).
• Proposals must comply with admissibility and eligibility conditions (page limits, layout, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity, exclusion criteria) as per Call Document sections 5–7.
• Evaluation procedures, award criteria, scoring thresholds and timelines are defined in Call Document section 8–9 and the Online Manual.
• Legal and financial setup in accordance with Call Document section 10 and the Model Grant Agreement (DEP MGA).
Important dates
Open from: 12/06/2025
Deadline:07/10/2025
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