The three-year European Research and Innovation project FOCAL (Functional cOmposition of post quantum Cryptosystems At Large), coordinated by the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus, officially commenced its activities on October 29th, 2025. The project brings together 15 partners from across Europe with the goal of developing a new generation of communication networks that will be resilient against quantum attacks.
The kick-off meeting of the project was held at the premises of the KIOS Center of Excellence, marking the beginning of a collaborative effort aimed to design and implement a unified framework for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) across edge networked environments — a critical milestone in ensuring Europe’s cybersecurity resilience in the quantum era.
FOCAL is one of three projects funded by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECC) and aims to enable the transition of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and critical infrastructure systems to evolve as quantum-safe deployments. It will thus deliver a unified framework for practical end-to-end functional composition of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in edge environments through cross-layering approaches combining hardware reconfigurability, advanced network orchestration, trusted execution environments, and ML-driven interoperability.
Beyond its technological vision, FOCAL will play a strategic role in supporting the European Union’s efforts on Post-Quantum Cryptography standardisation. The project will develop metrics and methodologies to assess the readiness of edge ecosystems for PQC deployment and contribute to policy recommendations aligned with the European Commission’s Recommendation on Post-Quantum Cryptography.
FOCAL, a €6.48M Research and Innovation Action funded under Horizon Europe, is coordinated by the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus, led by Prof (Asst.) Angelos Marnerides with a team including Prof. George Ellinas, Prof. (Assoc.) Theocharis Theocharides, Prof. (Assoc.) Maria Michael και Research Lecturer, Dr. Christos Laoudias. The project comprises experts from Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Israel.
According to the project’s coordinator Asst. Professor Dr. Angelos K. Marnerides, “FOCAL will be the first EU-led research initiative to advance essential sectors (like medical technology, satellite communications, telecommunications, and cloud data centers) towards enhanced protection against both classical and quantum attacks by implementing a unified, large-scale approach for deploying post-quantum cryptography. This project targets to work on resource-constrained systems underpinning critical infrastructures that EU citizens rely on daily. Leading this effort is a proud achievement for the University of Cyprus and the KIOS CoE, as they guide and coordinate such a project, selected from a highly competitive pool of 62 proposals, with only 3 being chosen.”
More info about the project: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101225859
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