Work Package 1

Project Management & Coordination

Lead Partner: University of Cyprus

Objectives:
This work package manages the project’s administration and finances to ensure timely and budget-compliant delivery. It oversees progress monitoring, partner and EC communication, conflict resolution, IPR support, transparent decision-making, and coordination of external events.

Key Tasks:
T1.1- Administration and financial coordination
T1.2 Project Management and Technical Coordination
T1.3 Risk Management

Work Package 2

PQC Foundations Development

Lead Partner: University of Cyprus

Objectives:
Work package 2 aims to strengthen the foundations for end-to-end PQC deployment by defining the FOCAL framework, designing hardware acceleration and reconfigurability schemes, developing hybrid key management and crypto-agility methods, tailoring PHY security for resource-constrained environments, and creating algorithmic and system-level solutions for network instrumentation and orchestration.

Key Tasks:
T2.1 FOCAL Framework
T2.2 Hardware Adaptability and Crypto-agility
T2.3 Communication Schemes for PQC-enabled Environments
T2.4 PQC Network Instrumentation & Orchestration

Work Package 3

PQC-enabled Applications

Lead Partner: Universtiy of Lübeck

Objectives:
This work package focuses on integrating PQC algorithms for edge applications. It leverages ML for resource optimization, develops efficient accelerators, optimizes ML models for PQC-enabled systems, introduces trusted execution environments resilient to quantum attacks, defines benchmarks for PQC performance, and enables secure protocol activation and over-the-air updates for embedded devices.

Key Tasks:
T1.1- Administration and financial coordination
T1.2 Project Management and Technical Coordination
T1.3 Risk Management

Work Package 4

Proof of Concepts

Lead Partner: CERTH

Objectives:
This work package focuses on integrating all sub-systems into the final FOCAL prototype, defining pilot specifications and assessment protocols, implementing use cases and pilots, testing and evaluating solutions, and providing validation methods along with lessons learned.

Key Tasks:
T4.1Testing Environment Definition and UC Requirements for deployment
T4.2 Framework and tools integration
T4.3 Large scale deployment and PQC transition validation
T4.4 System validation, lessons learnt and value creation

Work Package 5

PQC Transition Metrics

Lead Partner: KPMG

Objectives:
Work package 5 will assess the current baseline of policies, standards, technical capacity, and operational use. It will define metrics to guide the transition from legacy security systems to post-quantum cryptographic security, ensuring interoperability and compliance, and recommend updates to existing policies and standards to incorporate PQC based on technical and operational considerations.

Key Tasks:
T5.1 Policies
T5.2 Standards
T5.3 Technical Capacity
T5.4 Operational Use

Work Package 6

Dissemination & Exploitation

Lead Partner: SEMI Europe

Objectives:
This work package focuses on disseminating and communicating research outcomes, maximizing awareness and knowledge transfer, fostering adoption by scientific and non-scientific stakeholders, and laying the foundation for future commercialization of FOCAL’s solutions.

Key Tasks:
T6.1. Dissemination & Communication
T6.2 Exploitation