ASOCIATIA INFOCONS

Their core work

INFOCONS is a Romanian consumer protection association that brings the citizen and end-user perspective into EU digital security and privacy projects. They specialize in translating complex data protection and cybersecurity requirements into user-friendly frameworks, acting as the voice of consumers in technical consortia. Their work spans digital content verification, software certification, personal data protection, and privacy-by-design platforms, always with a focus on making security tools accessible and meaningful to ordinary citizens.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

INFOCONS entered H2020 in 2018 through digital content verification (SocialTruth), addressing misinformation and online trust — a broad digital topic. By 2021, their focus sharpened significantly toward personal data protection, privacy platforms, software security certification, and cryptographic privacy tools (TRUST aWARE, SOTERIA). This trajectory shows a clear deepening from general digital trust toward specialized privacy and data protection expertise with strong citizen engagement components.

INFOCONS is moving toward becoming a dedicated consumer-side partner for privacy-by-design and data protection projects, with growing capability in co-creation methodologies that involve citizens directly in security tool development.

How they like to work

INFOCONS operates exclusively as a consortium participant, never leading projects, which is consistent with their role as a consumer advocacy body contributing user perspectives rather than driving technical development. With 41 unique partners across 12 countries from just 3 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia — typical of Innovation Actions. Their value to consortia lies in providing the non-technical, citizen-facing dimension that technical partners often lack.

Despite only 3 projects, INFOCONS has built a network of 41 partners across 12 countries, indicating participation in large multi-national consortia. Their network spans a broad European footprint rather than concentrating on any single geographic cluster.

What sets them apart

INFOCONS fills a specific niche that many security and privacy consortia need but struggle to find: an organized consumer voice with EU project experience. As a consumer protection association rather than a research lab or tech company, they bring real-world user requirements, citizen engagement methodologies, and end-user validation that strengthen the societal impact dimension of proposals. For consortium builders in security or privacy calls, INFOCONS offers a credible civil society partner from an EU-13 country — useful for both geographic balance and genuine user representation.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SOTERIA
  Largest funding (EUR 258,205) and broadest scope — covering anonymization, biometrics, cryptography, and citizen co-creation in a single personal data protection platform.
• TRUST aWARE
  Focused on the practical side of software security through certification and audit — a less common angle for a consumer association, showing their growing technical credibility.
• SocialTruth
  Their entry point into H2020, tackling digital misinformation and content verification — a topic with high societal relevance that aligns with their consumer protection mission.