QualiChain · Project

Blockchain Platform That Verifies Degrees and Qualifications Instantly for HR and Recruitment

digitalPilotedTRL 7

Imagine every diploma, certificate, and professional qualification you've ever earned sitting in one tamper-proof digital vault — like a passport for your skills. Right now, verifying someone's degree means chasing emails to universities, waiting weeks, and sometimes still getting fooled by fakes. QualiChain built a blockchain-based platform where qualifications are stored, shared, and verified in seconds. It also adds smart career counselling and competency matching, so recruiters don't just confirm a degree — they find the right person for the job.

By the numbers

consortium partners involved in development and testing

countries covered in pilot testing (DE, EL, ES, PT, UK)

real-world pilot scenarios tested

total project deliverables produced

The business problem

What needed solving

Verifying someone's academic degree or professional qualification across borders is painfully slow — it involves contacting universities, waiting for manual confirmation, and still risks accepting forged documents. For HR departments hiring internationally and public sector bodies recruiting at scale, this creates delays, compliance risks, and wasted resources. There is no universal, tamper-proof system to instantly confirm that a candidate's credentials are real.

The solution

What was built

The project built a decentralised blockchain platform for storing, sharing, and verifying education and employment qualifications. The final release is described as a "fully functional high-fidelity implementation" with qualification archiving, verification, portfolio management, career counselling, intelligent profiling, recruitment matching, and decision support services — tested through 4 pilot scenarios across 5 countries.

Audience

Who needs this

International recruitment and staffing agencies verifying cross-border credentialsGovernment HR departments and civil service recruitment bodiesUniversities and certification bodies issuing digital credentialsLarge employers with compliance-heavy hiring (banking, healthcare, defence)EdTech platforms offering verified micro-credentials and lifelong learning portfolios

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Human Resources & Recruitment

any

Target: Staffing agencies and HR departments hiring across borders

If you are a recruitment firm dealing with verifying foreign degrees and professional certificates — this project developed a blockchain platform that checks qualifications instantly without contacting each university. It was piloted across 5 countries with 14 consortium partners, covering cross-university degree equivalence verification and HR consultancy scenarios. This means faster hiring cycles and zero risk of fraudulent credentials slipping through.

Public Administration

enterprise

Target: Government agencies and civil service recruitment bodies

If you are a public sector organization struggling with slow, paper-heavy hiring processes — this project piloted a staffing-the-public-sector scenario using blockchain-verified qualifications and decision support tools. The platform handles qualifications archiving, verification, and competency management in one place. With 4 pilot scenarios tested across 5 countries, the system was designed specifically for public sector transformation.

Education & EdTech

any

Target: Universities, online learning platforms, and certification bodies

If you are an education provider that needs to issue verifiable digital credentials or help students manage their qualification portfolios — this project built a decentralised platform for qualifications archiving and portfolio management. It includes smart curriculum design tools tested in a cross-university pilot. The final platform release was designed to be market-ready after testing across 14 partner organizations.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to implement this qualification verification system?

The project data does not include specific licensing fees or implementation costs. The platform was developed as a Research and Innovation Action with 14 partners, so commercial pricing would need to be negotiated with the consortium. Contact the coordinator for current licensing terms.

Can this scale to handle thousands of verification requests across multiple countries?

The platform was piloted across 5 countries (Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, UK) with 14 consortium partners. The 4 pilot scenarios — including cross-university degree equivalence and public sector staffing — demonstrate multi-country, multi-institution operation. The final release deliverable was described as fully functional and market-ready after additional testing.

Who owns the intellectual property and how can we license it?

As a Horizon 2020 RIA project coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens, IP ownership follows EU grant agreement rules — typically shared among the 14 consortium partners. Licensing arrangements would need to be discussed directly with the coordinator and relevant partners.

Does the platform comply with GDPR and education data regulations?

The project explicitly assessed legal implications of the blockchain-based solution. Given the consortium includes partners from 5 EU/UK countries and the platform handles personal qualification data, GDPR compliance was a core requirement. The project evaluated benefits and risks of the solution including legal and cultural dimensions.

How long would integration with our existing HR systems take?

Based on available project data, the platform offers baseline services (archiving, verification, portfolio management) and value-adding services (career counselling, recruitment, decision support). The final release was described as a fully functional high-fidelity implementation. Integration timelines would depend on which services you adopt and your current systems.

Is there ongoing technical support or is this a finished research project?

The project officially ended in December 2021 and is now closed. However, the consortium of 14 partners — including 2 industry partners and 1 SME — may offer continued development or support. The project website at qualichain-project.eu may have current contact information.

What makes this different from existing credential verification services?

QualiChain combines blockchain verification with computational intelligence for career counselling, competency management, and recruitment matching — not just credential checking. The 4 pilot scenarios covered degree equivalence, curriculum design, public sector staffing, and HR consultancy, making it a broader workforce intelligence platform rather than a simple verification tool.

Consortium

Who built it

The 14-partner consortium spans 5 countries (Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, UK) with a mix that leans heavily toward research and public sector — 3 research organizations, 2 universities, and 7 classified as 'other' (likely public bodies and associations), with only 2 industry partners and 1 SME. The 14% industry ratio signals this was primarily a research-driven effort, though the explicit public sector pilot and HR consultancy scenario show real-world grounding. For a business considering adoption, the relatively low industry participation means commercial deployment support may require additional partners, but the strong academic and public sector presence ensures the solution is well-tested in institutional environments.

ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNIONCoordinator · EL
KNOWLEDGEBIZ CONSULTING-SOCIEDADE DE CONSULTORIA EM GESTAO LDAparticipant · PT
UNINOVA-INSTITUTO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE NOVAS TECNOLOGIAS-ASSOCIACAOparticipant · PT
ATOS SPAIN SAparticipant · ES
TECHNISCHE INFORMATIONSBIBLIOTHEK (TIB)participant · DE
INESC ID - INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIADE SISTEMAS E COMPUTADORES, INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO EM LISBOAparticipant · PT
THE OPEN UNIVERSITYparticipant · UK
AGENCIA PARA A MODERNIZACAO ADMINISTRATIVA IPparticipant · PT
SECRETARIA REGIONAL DA SAUDEparticipant · PT

How to reach the team

The coordinator is the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. Use Google to search for the QualiChain project coordinator contact and email.

Order a report on this consortium See ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to connect with the QualiChain team about licensing or piloting the platform in your organization? SciTransfer can arrange an introduction to the right consortium partner for your use case.

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