We are pleased to announce that CDSL has won 4 new H2020 projects: REGULAIZE, JUSTITIA, DAGGER and ELESSAR.
RegulAIze (A Smart, Automated, and Trustworthy Data Ecosystem)'s abstract: The rapid expansion of EU regulations such as GDPR, Al Act and Data Act creates major challenges for organisations that must continuously demonstrate compliance. Manual interpretation of legal texts, fragmented reporting tools, and siloed infrastructures increase administrative costs and risks, particularly for SMEs. In parallel, the emergence of European data spaces and Al-driven services requires secure, transparent and interoperable infrastructures where compliance is embedded as a core property. RegulAlze delivers an end-to-end framework for regulatory compliance, creating a smart and trustworthy data ecosystem in which organisations can exploit Al-powered technologies across the compliance lifecycle. This is achieved through automated compliance mechanisms, NLP-based legal assistants, privacy-enhancing technologies, secure and auditable data transactions, semantic interoperability layers, and vector-database reasoning engines. The project focuses on seven objectives: (1) transform legal texts into machine-readable obligations using explainable LLMs; (2) issue verifiable Compliance Cards as blockchain-anchored credentials for datasets, Al models and processes; (3) integrate federated learning, fully homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs for secure data operations; (4) build synthetic data pipelines and digital twin validation to ensure representativeness and bias mitigation; (5) deploy compliance knowledge graphs with advanced vector search for semantic reasoning; (6) establish the RegulAlze Academy for training and skills development; and (7) validate the framework in six pilots across mobility, tourism, Al factories, legal services and cross-sector domains.
By being fully aligned with Horizon Europe Destination 3, RegulAlze incorporates automated verification into European data spaces
to reduce compliance costs, build trust in Al and data services and enable scalable, privacy-preserving innovation.
JUSTITIA (Forensic Digital Twins for Judicial-Grade Cybercrime Reconstruction and Cross-Border Evidence Integrity)'s abstract: JUSTITIA addresses the persistent gap between fragmented digital traces and court-ready narratives by transforming heterogeneous
artefacts into coherent lawful, and explainable reconstructions that security practitioners and judicial actors can trust, share, and admit across borders. It delivers a Forensic Digital Twin & Replay Engine that reconstructs multi-stage incidents end-to-end from logs, disk and memory images, network captures, cloud/edge telemetry, and mobile/loT artefacts; a provenance and chain-of-custody fabric that cryptographically signs, timestamps, and cleanly separates originals from simulations; and an automated legal admissibility and compliance layer that encodes EU and national rules to flag procedural gaps and support disclosure throughout the workflow. Cross-border interoperability is built-in via adapters and export templates aligned with eEDES/e-CODEX and SIRIUS guidance, with consent, necessity, and proportionality documented to uphold fundamental rights. Beyond static review, the microservice/Kubernetes-and SDN-orchestrated architecture enables full-system reenactment and interactive analysis in safe, virtualisedenvironments that mirror the originals, producing courtroom-ready timelines, causality graphs, and integrity bundles that courts can verify offline. Validation focuses on tool and method verification through minimum practices, reference datasets, and repeatable test harnesses, while practitioner-centred UX and plain-language rationales raise evidentiary clarity for investigators, prosecutors, and judges. A portfolio of pilots (e.g., healthcare ransomware, edge-to-cloud vehicle forensics, smart-home crime scenes, and a federated cross-border mock-trial) exercises dynamic replay, custody, admissibility, and evidence exchange under realistic constraints togenerate measurable improvements and accelerate uptake with Europol Innovation Lab and related initiatives.
DAGGER (Defending public Areas and safeGuarding citizens aGainst Escalating knife cRimes)'s abstract: Knife-related crimes are an escalating public safety challenge across the European Union, with alarming trends observed in both metropolitan and rural areas. According toEurostat and Europol, such incidents have increased steadily over the past five years. Germany reports annual growth exceeding 15%, France records over 120 knife attacks per day, and the United Kingdom continues to experience the highest rates in Europe, with more than
10,000 incidents in London alone in 2023. Similar trends are emerging in Italy and Spain, particularly among youth in urban centers
These developments have heightened public insecurity, exposed the limits of traditional policing, and underscored the need for
innovative, technology enabled solutions that support early detection and prevention. DAGGER will empower Law Enforcement Authorities (LEAs) through an integrated, field-ready system that combines advanced sensing technologies, Al driven object recognition, and real time decision support. Its mission is to enable proactive detection, deterrence, and prevention of knife related crimes in open and densely populated spaces such as transport hubs, public squares, sports arenas, and entertainment venues. The project introduces a multilayered technological framework that fuses fixed and mobile detection assets, edge analytics, and interoperable intelligence sharing tools to enhance situational awareness and tactical responsiveness. Unlike conventional surveillance, DAGGER shifts from passive observation to active intervention. DAGGER prioritizes non invasive detection, user centric operability, and ethical alignment with privacy, data protection, and community policing principles. By equipping frontline officers with actionable intelligence and trust building tools, DAGGER establishes a new paradigm
for public safety, where rapid, informed, and responsible responses reduce the toll of knife-related violence.
Finally, ELESSAR (Ethical, Legal and unobtrusivE System for Secure Age assessment for border authorities and migration seRvices)'s abstract: At EU external borders, an increasing number of individuals arrive without valid identity documents, creating uncertainty regarding their exact age. In many instances, there is reasonable doubt about their declared age; whether they present themselves as minors but may be adults, claim to be adults but are suspected to be minors, or are recognised as minors yet believed to be of a different age
than stated. The ELESSAR project will design, develop, validate, and demonstrate a rights-preserving, interoperable age-assessment
capability for EU border contexts that is (a) non-invasive-first through Al-based multi-modal age assessment based on face, ear, palm
and vein characteristics and accompanied by structured interviews and contextual indicators, (b) science-based and uncertainty-
aware connected with clear confidence levels and calibrated Al estimation as documented evidence, (c) governed by strong
safeguards including guardian/legal representative, informed consent, proportionality, audit trails, gender-sensitive procedures, and
(d) interoperable with border IT and future DTC ecosystems. Co-creation with border guards, human rights advocates, and legal/
ethics experts will provide a holistic foundation for the development of an age-assessment framework that is operationally practical
and firmly grounded in fundamental rights. ELESSAR will establish a harmonised, transparent, and evidence-based approach that
enhances the protection of minors and the credibility of border procedures, while reducing legal disputes, accelerating case handling,
and reinforcing institutional trust across the EU. Ultimately, it aspires to set a new European benchmark for ethical, Al-assisted age
assessment, informing both future policy and operational practice at the EU external borders.