idD Portugal Defence Chairman attended the DISCRETION project demonstration, which took place on January 29 at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union in Brussels.
DISCRETION is an innovative project funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF), bringing together a consortium of four European Union Member States – Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Austria. With a total investment exceeding €6 million, the project is coordinated by Deimos Engenharia, in partnership with Altice Labs, Adyta, Instituto de Telecomunicações da Universidade de Aveiro, Instituto Superior Técnico, Telefónica (ES), Universidade Politécnica de Madrid (ES), Austrian Institute of Technology (AT), and NEXTWORKS (IT). It is being developed in close collaboration with the Directorate-General for National Defence Resources, the National Security Office, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
The DISCRETION project aims to build two innovative systems that contribute to national sovereignty in cybersecurity and cryptography: the creation of a national cipher machine with the capability of distributing quantum keys, and next-generation quantum nodes, both developed exclusively with Portuguese technology.
This project was the winner of the last EDIDP 2020 call (Preparatory Programme of the European Defence Fund) in the capacity development component, standing out as the first project to be led by a national consortium. DISCRETION is closely aligned with the PESCO CAIH (EU CAIH) project, integrated into PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation), and with the national initiative Cyber Academia and Innovation Hub.
The event was also attended by the Secretary of State for National Defence, as well as representatives from European institutions, NATO, the countries that make up the consortium, and various civilian and military entities.
