A turning point for EU digital identity as TrustED transitions from design into operational pilots involving real users, real data and real governance

With Horizon Europe funding and a multi-country alliance, TrustED now moves from concept to implementation across real European environments.

(NEWS) VIGO, Spain, 27-Nov-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — Europe’s move toward secure, citizen-controlled digital identity took a definitive step forward in Rome, where TrustED consortium members gathered for a two-day meeting marking the project’s transition from research and development into real-world pilot deployment, according to their press release published on EuropaWire. Representatives from 10 organisations across Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Turkey aligned on technical milestones, interoperability frameworks and rollout planning for pilots that will test self-sovereign identity (SSI) and privacy-preserving data exchange in live environments. External Advisory Board members — including Ignacio Alamillo, Alberto Pedrouzo and Pietro Bartoccioni — contributed guidance to ensure regulatory alignment and measurable impact as TrustED moves beyond design and into implementation.

The Rome session signals a shift from architectural planning to operational execution, where TrustED’s technologies will be evaluated in real contexts involving citizens, service providers and public-sector institutions. Pilots will assess consent management, cross-framework interoperability, privacy-preserving data flows and auditability systems built to reinforce trust in digital transactions. The transition comes at a time when privacy awareness is surging — a KPMG study shows 59% of Europeans feel more concerned about data protection than five years ago — and the EU has allocated more than €53 billion to digital public service modernisation through its Recovery and Resilience Facility. By moving into deployment, TrustED positions itself to generate concrete evidence for the future of European-scale identity governance, data spaces and compliant privacy infrastructure.

TrustED originated in October 2024 with Horizon Europe funding of nearly €4 million and is led by the Spanish technology centre Gradiant, which plays a central role in developing SSI systems and advanced privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) such as homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs. These techniques allow identity attributes to be verified without exposing underlying data, enabling user authentication without surrendering personal control. The project is structured around three interconnected pillars — decentralised digital identity, privacy-enhancing computation and interoperable data spaces — forming a technical foundation intended to support collaborative access to information across Europe while preserving anonymity and consent.

User research has informed the development from the earliest phase. In December 2024, Fundación Cibervoluntarios conducted focus groups in Madrid with volunteers aged 18–30, over 50 and a third online cohort, exploring perceptions of digital identity, onboarding processes and comfort levels when sharing personal data. Insights from these sessions now underpin the TrustED wallet’s design, emphasising control, clarity and user-centred interaction.

In May 2025, partners met in Istanbul for the first in-person technical review to evaluate initial progress and refine the roadmap. The consortium reported advances in eIDAS-aligned identity layers, federated learning systems for privacy-preserving AI, and selective disclosure mechanisms that let users share only what is necessary. A public webinar — Digital Privacy & Identity in European Data Ecosystems — is part of the continuing outreach to align TrustED with wider digital sovereignty goals and cross-sector adoption.

By September 2025, TrustED entered prototype interface testing for its digital identity wallet. Volunteers were invited to interact with mock-ups simulating real usage workflows — account setup, identity attribute disclosure, verification steps — to test usability before full-scale pilots. This process follows a design-thinking model based on iterative evaluation, ensuring accessibility and functionality shape the tool before deployment across real user bases.

As pilots progress, the initiative is also examining new authentication models. Voice biometrics has emerged as a complementary method within multi-factor identity systems, enabling secure verification without storing raw recordings. Advancements in deepfake detection, replay attack prevention and fraud monitoring are expected to support high-assurance authentication in future implementations.

At the broader European scale, TrustED reflects a shift toward data spaces — technical and governance frameworks where public institutions, companies and research bodies can share data securely under common rules. PETs such as federated learning, differential privacy, secure multi-party computation and attribute-based zero-knowledge proofs are central to enabling these exchanges without compromising confidentiality. Used together, they support an environment where information can move, be analysed and generate value without exposing individual identity.

Across its roadmap, TrustED seeks to prove one thing: that privacy and innovation do not need to be in conflict. If successful, its pilots could help shape the architecture supporting European digital identity systems, informing how services verify citizens, how data is protected and how trust is upheld in cross-border interactions. In the long term, the project aims to show that data sovereignty — long a policy ambition — can function as a practical reality in everyday digital life.