The financial world is changing rapidly with Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance creating new possibilities, but also raising questions around security, regulation, transparency and trust.
These are some of the challenges at the centre of “FORCE – Fostering Optimal Regulatory Compliance for Cryptocurrencies: An Interdisciplinary Approach” (https://force-msca.eu/index.php), a Horizon Europe project bringing together universities, research organisations and industry partners from across Europe.
The project focuses on strengthening Anti-Money Laundering (AML) approaches for the evolving digital finance environment, bringing together areas including artificial intelligence, blockchain analytics, post-quantum cryptography, regulatory compliance and digital finance.
But FORCE is not only about research, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Staff Exchanges project, an important part of its approach is bringing people from different organisations and disciplines together.
Researchers exchange knowledge and explore problems with indsutry partners allowing them to see different perspectives. This creates a direct connection between academic research, technological development and the realities faced by organisations working with emerging technologies.
For Vernian, this is particularly relevant as our work is focused on the management and organisational side of technology, including digitsl readiness and resilience, cybersecurity, governance, and regulatory compliance. FORCE provides us with the opportunity to contribute this perspective while learning from partners working at the forefront of areas such as AI-driven blockchain analytics and post-quantum cryptography.
The project is putting this approach into practice. Our team has participated in secondments with Aston University in the United Kingdom and the University of Bielsko-Biala in Poland, while Vernian welcomed researchers from our partners to Cyprus.
Each exchange is different, but the principle is the same, giving organisations to share different expertise and perspectives, work on real research challenges and learn from each other.
This combination of research, technology and practical implementation is one of the aspects of FORCE that we value most. Emerging technologies cannot be considered only in terms of what they can do, we also need to understand how they can be secured, governed, trusted and applied responsibly.
There is still work ahead, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with the FORCE consortium and sharing more of what we learn along the way.
FORCE – Fostering Optimal Regulatory Compliance for Cryptocurrencies: An Interdisciplinary Approach has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01), Grant Agreement No. 101235440.