Objective
Neither regulation nor technology alone can protect Europeans’ privacy in the digital age. Despite the EU’s world-leading legal framework—from the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive to the DSA and the DMA—citizens remain vulnerable to opaque and fast-evolving online tracking practices that exploit gaps across platform controls. Existing Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) are fragmented, reactive, and often unusable, failing to keep pace with the sophistication of tracking practices and the complexity of real-world digital platforms.
REAL-PETS addresses this urgent gap by rethinking PETs from the ground up, integrating empirical detection of privacy abuses, regulatory compliance, and human-centred design into a single, agile research framework. It will develop scalable, cross-platform PETs—including adaptive “smart-noise” defences, privacy-preserving analytics, anonymous credentials, and post-quantum-ready encryption—capable of protecting users across the web, mobile, and IoT ecosystems. These technologies will be validated through real-world pilots with PET providers, enabling continuous, evidence-based improvement and rapid transfer to market and policy domains.
The consortium unites nine partners from six countries, combining top academic expertise in privacy research (IMDEA, RU, KAU, UC3M) covering usability, legal and technical research expertise, with innovative SMEs (TEC, MULINI, NYM, AppCensus, MVD) that lead in VPNs and large-scale auditing. This balanced composition ensures scientific excellence and strong exploitation capacity to accelerate Europe’s leadership in privacy innovation.
REAL-PETS will generate long-lasting technological, societal, and industrial impact: strengthening EU technological sovereignty, enabling regulators to enforce privacy rules through empirical evidence, technology standardisation, fostering privacy-resilient products and services, and empowering citizens with usable, transparent, and trustworthy privacy protections.
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.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.2.3 - Civil Security for Society
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.3.3 - Cybersecurity
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Topic(s)
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.
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-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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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) HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC
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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.
9500 Villach
Austria
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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.