Horizon Europe/Eurostars: Implementación en el mundo real de tecnologías de comunicación cuánticamente seguras desarrolladas

The Maltese company is the technical lead behind the EuroQCI project co-funded by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme. Through this project, the Maltese company has designed and developed a quantum secured testbed network across the Maltese Islands. It has also deployed Malta s first quantum key distribution link on live telecom fibre, and run multi-site trials combining commercial QKD devices, optical transport equipment and classical encryption systems.
The company s contribution is a vendor-agnostic, standards-aligned software stack for integrating PQC and QKD into networks, combined with operational lessons from PRISM and from international demonstrations with networking and quantum-technology vendors. In those demonstrations, quantum-secured connectivity was established between on-premises data centres and cloud infrastructure using QKD systems, backbone fibre and commercial routing and encryption equipment. Within PRISM, they have also worked with local partners on QKD-assisted links and quantum-secured VPNs. Together, these activities provide a foundation for new research that is ambitious but grounded in what has already been shown to work.

They now would like to extend this experience into applied research and demonstration projects in sectors where long-term confidentiality and resilience are critical, especially in the finance and healthcare sectors.
Quantum-era threats and “store now, decrypt later” attacks are increasingly recognised, but there is little empirical data on how post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and QKD behave when used on backbone links between data centres or across borders. Thus the objective of the next project is to create collaborative testbeds that generate such data under realistic conditions, using infrastructure contributed by partners. Thus they are seeking financial institutions such as banks, or healthcare institutions to create a quantum-safe backbone testbed connecting at least 2 financial or critical infrastructure sites via one or more telecom operators. Over this testbed, partners would deploy PQC-based protections at suitable layers and, where feasible, overlay QKD to supply additional keying material, then measure how these approaches affect performance, availability, operational effort and the ability to produce evidence for compliance compared with current practice based solely on classical cryptography.
Academic partners would help define measurement and analysis methods; financial and regulatory stakeholders would map technical metrics to risk indicators and assurance artefacts that are meaningful for supervisors, auditors and internal governance.
Expected outputs include reference architectures for quantum-safe backbones, deployment and operations guidance, and case studies showing where PQC alone is sufficient and where QKD may add measurable value. Depending on the funding call, projects could also include training and outreach activities, using Malta s PRISM network and related demonstrations as visible showcases of quantum communication in operation. All work would build on the company s existing activities rather than on hypothetical future capabilities, so that results can be translated quickly into practical guidance and, where appropriate, commercial offerings.
Advantages and innovation
The company has already been leading the PRISM EuroQCI project co-funded by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme. It can act as Lead once again and is experienced in writing and submitting proposals for EU funding.
The Lead expert is a professor and academic with connections to other Universities and research centres.
Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
Depending on the expertise and experience of the collaborating partner, the entity is expected to work on established work packages as part of a consortium via an EU funded project agreement.

Framework program
Horizon Europe
Call title and identifier
Depends on the call
Submission and evaluation scheme
Anticipated project budget
Coordinator required
No
Deadline for EoI 31 Dec 2026
Deadline of the call 30 Sep 2026