2018-annual-report

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ARVI
Runtime Verification Beyond Monitoring
EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
annual report
20
Funding: European Union, COST Action
Duration: 2014–2018
Investigator: Assoc. Res. Prof. César Sánchez
Runtime verification (RV) is a computing analysis paradigm based on observing a system at runtime to check
its expected behavior. RV has emerged in recent years as a practical application of formal verification, and
a less ad-hoc approach to conventional testing by building monitors from formal specifications. There is a
great potential applicability of RV beyond software reliability, if one allows monitors to interact back with the
observed system, and generalizes to new domains beyond computer programs (like hardware, devices, cloud
computing, and even human-centric systems). Given the European leadership in computer-based industries,
novel applications of RV to these areas can have an enormous impact in terms of the new class of designs
enabled and their reliability and cost-effectiveness.
CryptoAction
Cryptography for Secure Digital Interaction
EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Funding: European Union, COST Action
Duration: 2014–2018
Investigator: Asst. Res. Prof. Dario Fiore
As increasing amounts of sensitive data are exchanged and processed every day on the Internet, the need for
security is paramount. Cryptography is the fundamental tool for securing digital interactions, and allows much
more than secure communications: recent breakthroughs in cryptography enable the protection – at least from a
theoretical point of view – of any interactive data processing task. This includes electronic voting, outsourcing of
storage and computation, e-payments, electronic auctions, etc. However, as cryptography advances and becomes
more complex, single research groups become specialized and lose contact with “the big picture”. Fragmentation
in this field can be dangerous, as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. To ensure that the ideas produced
in Europe’s many excellent research groups will have a practical impact, coordination among national efforts and
different skills is needed. The aim of this COST Action is to stimulate interaction between the different national
efforts in order to develop new cryptographic solutions and to evaluate the security of deployed algorithms with
applications to the secure digital interactions between citizens, companies and governments. The Action will
foster a network of European research centers thus promoting movement of ideas and people between partners.
EUIN Grants
Funding: Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness
Duration: 2017 – 2018
Europa Investigación Grants, funded by MINECO, support the submission of proposals from Spanish research
groups to calls belonging to the H2020 Framework Programme. IMDEA Software has obtained two of these
grants to support the submission of two research proposals to the European Research Council (for Starting
Grant, made by Dario Fiore, and Advanced Grant, made by Roberto Giacobazzi) in 2017.