LAGO, Lessen data access and governance obstacles

Context

LAGO aims to create a community that brings together LEAs, researchers, industry and practitioners in the security ecosystem under a coordinated and strategic effort to improve access to fighting crime and terrorism research data, by delivering the foundation for a trusted European Research Data Ecosystem to address the ‘data issue’ in the research landscape for the fight against crime and terrorism.

Project objectives

• ASSESS the barriers and current practices in data sharing.
• DESCRIBE the social, legal, ethical, and privacy requirements for an FCT data space.
• DESIGN a reference architecture suitable for an FCT.
• DEVELOP TRL-7 value-added technologies to support the data privacy, quality, and quantity elements of the RDE.
• CREATE a governance framework and procedures for a trusted data space and secure data sharing.
• VALIDATE AND DEMONSTRATE the envisaged RDE architecture within the FCT community in real operational scenarios and domains.
• COMPOSE a comprehensive roadmap for implementing the RDE in FCT research

Solution

LAGO will address the data issue in the FCT research landscape by building an evidence-based and validated multi-actor reference architecture for a trusted EU FCT Research Data Ecosystem (RDE). The RDE will be an open, transparent and secure data infrastructure where FCT-related data can be co-created, made available and shared in a trusted environment. The project will also investigate on novel methods and deliver tools to discover and acquire relevant data from sources external to the LAGO ecosystem and data spaces, to enhance the capabilities for creating relevant and significant datasets for FCT research. I.e., to develop methodologies and AI tools for the creation, collection, annotation and provision of research datasets.

Vicomtech's role:

VICOM has made significant and impactful contributions to the LAGO project. On the technical part, VICOM’s contributions have played a pivotal role in the data preparation steps for the datasets to be shared on the RDE. The main contribution was made in the effective integration of privacy-preserving technologies. VICOM has developed AI-based tools that first identify personal data and then uses synthetic data that mirror the statistical properties of the original to anonymise personal data. This approach safeguards individual privacy while preserving the integrity and usability of the datasets to be shared within the RDE.

On the other hand, VICOM has contributed to the development of sustainability models and exploitation planning to ensure the long-term viability and usability of the LAGO technical solutions. This work is closely linked to the Innovation Management Plan, also led by VICOM, which supported the monitoring of emerging technology trends that might influence the solutions developed by LAGO, while also helping to capture innovative ideas within the FCT research landscape.
 

Partners

Consortium: 25 partners from 14 countries 

• 9 Academia and RTOs: AIT, CEA, CENTRIC, CERTH, ICCS, INOV, LINKS, UPM, VICOM
• 3 Big Industries: ENG, ATOS, and THALES
• 2 SME: CFLW and IANUS
• 7 Law Enforcement Agencies: HPOL, FRMOI, PJ, FIMOI, SPA, PPA, SPS
• 1 Public organisation: KEMEA

Financing

• Funding: Funded by the European Union (Grant No 101073951)
• Topic: HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-04: Improved access to fighting crime and terrorism research data
• Type: HORIZON Innovation Actions