Project description
Good-bye to fake authenticity tags on counterfeit products
In an increasingly globalised and digitally savvy era, current methods to verify the authenticity of goods from shoes to pharmaceuticals are proving inadequate. When it comes to medicine, the case is particularly urgent. Sick children are dying from the use of counterfeit pneumonia medicines. Anti-counterfeit measures including tamper-proof seals and security numbers as well as high-tech methods like RFID tags, colour-shifting inks and holograms are widely used. However, these are easily ‘clonable’. Funded by the European Research Council, the NanoPUF project aims to develop unclonable nanotechnology-based physical tags that can be authenticated via a 3D-printed portable microscope. The tags are reliable and inexpensive to produce, and the technology to read them is similarly cost effective and reliable.
Objective
The problem: 119 billion EUR worth of counterfeit and pirated goods were sold in the EU in 2022 (Europol/EUIPO). Counterfeiting of goods remains a challenge for our society, increasingly so in a globalised world with long supply chains. Concurrently, the market for sensitive goods, such as medicine has also increased, further exemplifying the need for anti-counterfeit measures. The WHO estimates ~ 100,000 children under five die annually from taking counterfeit pneumonia medication. Current anti-counterfeit measures include tamper-proof seals, security numbers, RFID tags, colour-shifting inks as well as holograms etc.. However, current strategies to prevent counterfeiting of authentic goods are proving inadequate. The lack of a simple and robust way of verifying the authenticity of a product is causing economic and human harm. Simply put, the features in current physical authentication tags are clonable.
The solution: We propose first steps towards the commercialization of nanotechnology-based unclonable physical tags which can be attached to product packaging and authenticated via a 3D-printed portable microscope. This will result in cheap, reliable and fool-proof encryption AND cheap, reliable and fool-proof decryption. Our work, having advanced in the past years from a visionary idea to a prototype, offers an anti-counterfeit packaging solution and can become a part of the supply chain logistics in industries from pharmaceuticals to luxury goods and even for currency.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine pneumology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-POC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.