HARPOCRATES is a multidisciplinary and international research and development project seeking to develop secure data processing methods.
Recently, the European Commission granted the project more than 4.4 million euros of Horizon Europe funding. The HARPOCRATES project is a continuation of the earlier Horizon 2020 project ASCLEPIOS, involving a total of 13 research institutes, hospitals and companies.
“Ensuring the privacy of research subjects is a very important part of the research. However, our current regulations and laws can be too strict at times, at worst preventing research. This is why it is very important to develop data encryption methods that safeguard two things: the privacy of research subjects, and the possibility to conduct research,” says Associate Professor Timo Leppänen of the Department of Applied Physics at the University of Eastern Finland.
Leppänen is one of the leaders of the Sleep Technology and Analytics Research Group (https://sites.uef.fi/star/) at the Department of Applied Physics, and the person responsible for leading the HARPOCRATES project at the University of Eastern Finland.
Combining large datasets and tailored statistical analysis methods offers a unique opportunity for different organisations to adapt and fine-tune their services according to individual needs. In research data analysis, artificial intelligence-based methods have already yielded significant results, and they are used in various applications ranging from medical diagnostics to pattern recognition. However, such methods and personalisation based on the analysis of user data do not necessarily guarantee the privacy of individuals.
The HARPOSCRATES project aims to find a solution to this challenge by developing privacy-guaranteeing data protection methods that enable the application of statistical analysis and artificial intelligence methods to protected data as accurately as to unprotected data. This would allow research and analyses to be carried out without the need to process unprotected data in external computing environments, for example.
The usability and reliability of the protection and analysis methods developed will be tested in two real-world user cases: in the analysis of clinical sleep data, and in the analysis of threat data by local authorities. In addition, the project will develop a digital analysis platform that provides a simple and easy way to analyse protected research data.
For further information, please contact:
Associate Professor Timo Leppänen, timo.leppanen@uef.fi
Learn more about the HARPOCRATES project
