The REACH Toolbox – what exactly is that?

The REACH Project

The growth of the European Digital Single Market is being accelerated thanks to the launch of next generation data incubators, such as REACH. Indeed, in order to take the lead in the data economy, Europe has funded innovative initiatives aiming at breaking data silos, accessing, sharing and reusing data, while ensuring it all happens in a secure and reliable manner. To do so, the REACH Incubator supports European start-ups and SMEs in their developments of reliable and secure solutions to process sensitive industrial and personal data.

Find more information on the genesis of REACH here.

The REACH Toolbox

After reading this article introduction, you may wonder how can European start-ups benefit from REACH in practice, apart from financial support to boost their developments? This is the core objective of REACH, to provide an enabling set of digital trust services that facilitate new developments: the REACH Toolbox. Effectively, the REACH digital incubator is pre-equipped with key state-of-the-art tools that are ready to be deployed and used by applicant start-ups. One of the drivers of the data economy is the creation/implementation of secure and reliable data value chains between stakeholders. Obviously, the REACH Toolbox addresses these needs and follows the same approach in providing free access to its toolbox as standard online APIs, which start-ups can use and even integrate in their own solutions to accelerate regulatory conformance related developments while reducing time to market.

Let’s dig into the Reach Toolbox

Now that the scene is set, let’s get into the very heart of the matter: where are these software components coming from and what are they for? The REACH Toolbox is made of enabling digital trust software, supplied by renowned institutions in Europe, i.e.:

– The Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA), a leading French scientific research administration;
– The Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH), a leading Research Centre in Greece and in the EU;
– Gnubila (now be ys Research, from the be ys group), a company specialised in data protection software, and in Research and Innovation of pioneering deeptech solutions (i.e., AI, Blockchain, Big Data).

Find more information here.

The REACH Toolbox is thus currently made of 8 products addressing 3 different layers of the data value chain functional requirements:

– The first area is entitled “Privacy-enhancing: Protection of data flows, guaranteeing privacy (in case of personal data processing), and confidentiality (in case of sensitive industrial data processing)” and is supplied by Gnúbila with its Anonymizer solution, as well as by the CEA with its FRAMA-C solution.

– The second area deals with compelling traceability and audit trails issues, and the potential use of Blockchain technology. It is entitled “Trusted data sharing and auditing: Ready-to-use DLT technologies for data integrity and accountability”. The latter is provided by Gnúbila with its ProRegister solution and CERTH with three of its products, i.e.,: Blockchain as a Service (BaaS), Data Sharing Platform, Audit Messages Storage tool.

– The last functional area is concerned with business logic automation and is addressed by the CEA with its MAX (Multi Agent Experiment) and WHY-3 products. It is entitled “Data Governance and Smart Contracts: Advanced Tools to Support the Development of Distributed Ledger Capabilities” and speaks for itself.

Find more information here.

Benefits for the selected Start-ups/SMEs

What are the real benefits of using the REACH Toolbox for selected start-ups? Indeed, several positive aspects have been identified to date through the use of the tools provided by the REACH incubator. Here is a non-exhaustive list:

– The possibility of using state-of-the-art solutions for free in their respective fields;

– Access to a secure and reliable development environment for testing their solutions;

– Accelerated development cycles with the creation of a POC and a MPV (minimum viable product);

– Benefit from the expertise of digital trust experts while extending their professional network.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the REACH Toolbox is a comprehensive suite of foundational software services to support start-ups/SMEs in addressing security, privacy, data governance and new products cumbersome development issues, such as regulatory conformance. It facilitates and accelerates the creation of innovative solutions while being part of the European approach to creating cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholders data pilot projects and ecosystems.

The best way for start-ups to find out more and leverage on the REACH Toolbox is to apply to the next REACH Open Call!

To learn more join us for our Info Webinar on January 20, 2022, see you there!