FONDAZIONE CENTRO SAN RAFFAELE

Their core work

Fondazione Centro San Raffaele is the research foundation linked to one of Italy's most prominent university hospitals, the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. In H2020 projects, they contribute domain expertise at the intersection of healthcare and digital security — specifically applying privacy-preserving technologies, secure data exchange, and cloud security to clinical and e-health environments. Their work bridges hospital-grade requirements (consent management, patient data protection, health data interoperability) with advanced ICT solutions like homomorphic encryption and privacy-by-design architectures. They also bring real clinical settings for piloting digital health tools, from robotic surgery assistants to big data platforms for independent living.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2017), FCSR focused heavily on foundational ICT security: cloud cryptography, homomorphic encryption, privacy-enhancing solutions, and security-by-design architectures — essentially building the privacy toolbox. From 2017 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward applying these capabilities in healthcare: e-health data exchange, consent management, hospital data protection, and ultimately big data platforms for connected health and independent living. The trajectory shows a research centre that moved from general-purpose digital security into becoming a specialized bridge between hospital needs and privacy-preserving digital infrastructure.

FCSR is converging on secure digital health infrastructure — future collaborators should expect them to bring hospital-validated privacy and data governance expertise to health-tech projects.

How they like to work

FCSR has never coordinated an H2020 project, consistently joining as a participant (9 times) or third party (4 times). This positions them as a domain contributor rather than a project leader — they bring the clinical environment, healthcare regulatory knowledge, and real-world validation context that ICT-driven consortia need. With 137 unique partners across 16 countries, they are well-networked and comfortable operating in large, diverse consortia rather than tight bilateral arrangements.

Broadly connected across 16 European countries with 137 unique consortium partners, reflecting participation in medium-to-large consortia. No strong geographic concentration — their network spans Western, Southern, and Northern Europe, consistent with their role as a hospital-based contributor sought for clinical validation.

What sets them apart

What distinguishes FCSR is the combination of a top-tier Italian university hospital with genuine ICT security research capacity. Most hospital foundations contribute clinical use cases but lack technical depth; most ICT labs lack access to real clinical environments. FCSR bridges both — they can contribute homomorphic encryption expertise AND validate it in an actual hospital setting with real patient data governance constraints. For any consortium needing a healthcare pilot site that also understands the security engineering, FCSR fills a gap few organizations can.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PAL
  Largest single grant (EUR 605,000) and longest project (2015–2019), focused on AI-driven personal health assistants — signaling deep commitment to digital health.
• WITDOM
  Core privacy and security project (EUR 517,500) covering homomorphic encryption and privacy-enhancing solutions — the technical foundation that shaped FCSR's subsequent health data work.
• SMART BEAR
  Their most recent major project (2019–2025), a large-scale big data platform for independent living — represents the culmination of their privacy + health convergence.