European Networking for satellite Telecommunication Roadmap for the governmental Users requiring Secure, inTeroperable, InnovativE and standardiseD services

Project Information

ENTRUSTED

Grant agreement ID: 870330

DOI

10.3030/870330

Project closed

EC signature date 21 August 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 31 May 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 4 089 514,41

EU contribution

€ 2 999 940,00

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR THE SPACE PROGRAMME
Czechia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ENTRUSTED (European Networking for satellite Telecommunication Roadmap for the governmental Users requiring Secure, inTeroperable, InnovativE and standardiseD services)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

SatCom is a key asset in security and defence related secured communications, as highlighted by several EU official documents. SatCom extend and complement terrestrial communication networks, but its role become of extremely high importance when other means of communication are not possible, reliable or available. In this respect, Europe lacks to a wide extent independence and autonomy in secure SatCom services and this is an area for improvement in support of the European Union’s and its citizen’s security when crisis or critical situations occur.
This project is conceived to create a community of governmental users that can share information about:
- Existing and planned secure SatCom assets and capabilities within EU and in the global market;
- User technologies that are already existing or are planned to become available in the next future;
- Current and future secure SatCom user needs and use cases.

The ENTRUSTED consortium establishes a Network of Users for governmental Satellite Communications, with the aim to achieve a reliable collaboration and coordination between them to eventually agree on common user needs and requirements, to share information about existing and planned future SatCom capabilities and to have
a framework to establish symbiotic relationships when beneficial for the partners. The main project's results will be a consolidated set of institutional EU user requirements for secure SatCom services and a long-term Roadmap and Coordination plan for research and innovation activities related to the user technologies, to serve as reference guidelines for the future user related activities and pave the way for the EU GOVSATCOM programme component.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Due to COVID-19 restrictions across Europe, normal work in the office and regular face to face meetings could not take place in the current reporting period. Despite these imponderables, the partners showed their willingness and good spirit of collaboration so that the project could continue and be implemented according to the plan. The pandemic had an impact on some of the planned activities, and in particular on the training session which was designed to take place as a physical meeting. The consortium discussed to change the meeting to an online format at a later date and the coordinator prepared the necessary steps to amend the Consortium Agreement.
The Survey with the Users of satellite communication, which is one of the main objectives of the project, was prepared and launched on 19th April. The survey was led by WP2 leader SatCen and distributed to the potential national and EU users by the consortium partners Answers from 48 users were collected until end of May. These answers were included in the draft of the major deliverable D2.3 User Requirements Document (URD) shared in August (only the non-classified part). Until the final deadline of the Survey in the end of June, answers of 154 interested users, including detailed inputs for 192 use cases were collected.
Due to programmatic needs, it was decided and agreed to anticipate the draft of deliverable D2.3 URD as a major input to other EU GOVSATCOM activities. The project timeline was aligned accordingly.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The ENTRUSTED project, by means of the set-up of its unprecedented consortium representing a wide range of secure SatCom users, has already reached a first goal which will have an extremely positive impact with respect to the objectives set for this action. The establishment and maintenance of a network of already existing and/or aspiring governmental users will strengthen the cooperation and facilitate a common understanding on the matter. The consortium and its representing network is understood as a vast group of users who cooperate together to create a new value and that support each other in related activities, in line with the EU core values.
Below, each expected impact listed in the Work Programme is addressed by an extent of its fulfilment in the project: Common understanding of user needs, and potential for innovation, including interoperability, and standardisation in the use of secure satellite communications by EU and Member State users; Enhanced synergies in the uptake of secure governmental satellite communication solutions among users from different disciplines, backgrounds and Member States; More efficient use of investments made across the EU in demonstrating, testing and training governmental satellite communications users; Outputs from this project may benefit future EU programmes in this domain.