FOCAL Technical Activities Gain Momentum

The technical core of the FOCAL project is taking shape. While Work Package 2 on PQC foundation development (WP 2) and Work Package 3 on PQC-enabled applications (WP3) are actively advancing foundational and conceptual work, preparations are underway to launch Work Package 4 on Large Scale Proof Of Concepts (WP 4).


WP2 focuses on the development of the FOCAL PQC foundations, covering the requirements, architecture, and technical building blocks needed for the project’s post-quantum cryptography ecosystem. Current activities include requirements collection and synthesis, crypto-agile hardware acceleration, hybrid key management, PQC scheme evaluation for automotive and satellite communications, RIS-enabled physical layer security, and network orchestration mechanisms for PQC-enabled environments.

WP3 is currently focused on shaping and validating technical concepts, supported by intensive technical exchanges. This groundwork is paving the way for the next phase, where concrete building blocks and implementations will start to emerge over the coming months. These efforts span the integration of PQC in TLS, the implementation and integration of hardware accelerators, as well as concepts for using PQC in trusted execution environments.

Starting in July, WP4 will integrate all previously developed sub‑systems into the final FOCAL prototype, define pilot specifications and assessment protocols, implement the final use cases and pilots, and carry out comprehensive testing, validation, evaluation, and consolidation of lessons learnt.