CSB4W – Horizon Europe HUMAN-02: Modular Architecture for Interoperable Credentials and Skills in Web 4.0

📌 Call: HORIZON-CL4-2026-04-HUMAN-02
📌 Action type: RIA – Research and Innovation Action
📌 Deadline: 15 April 2026 (opening: January 2026)
📌 Project budget: €3–6 million (3 projects expected to be funded)
📌 TRL at entry/exit: TRL 2 → TRL 5
📌 Coordinator: DiTELC Switzerland

🔍 Project overview

CSB4W – Credentials and Skills Bank for Web 4.0 aims to develop a reference architecture for interoperable, semantically mapped, and cryptographically future-proof credentials infrastructure. This modular trust framework will support verifiable learning achievements, decentralized recognition, and machine-readable competence graphs — without deploying a production cryptographic stack or wallet interface.

The system is post-quantum compatible by design, relying on DID/VC standards, modular metadata schemas, and formal policy logic. Its semantic core will enable multilingual skills mapping across EQF, ESCO, DigComp, GreenComp, and EU Digital Credentials frameworks.

🎯 Objectives

– Design a modular architecture for credential and skill interoperability in Web 4.0 ecosystems;
– Specify interface-level compatibility with post-quantum DID and verifiable credentials standards (no cryptographic engine implemented);
– Build a semantic trust model linking existing EU competence frameworks to decentralized identifiers;
– Develop metadata schemas and prototype APIs for cross-platform credential integration (wallets, LMS, EdTech, research infrastructures);
– Deliver demonstrator scenarios (e.g., student mobility, research peer verification) using simulated or sandboxed environments.

🧠 Who we are looking for

– Research groups in digital identity, educational data interoperability, and semantic web
– EdTech and research infrastructures interested in modular credential governance
– Quantum or identity labs working on interface-level design for future DID/PQC systems
– Stakeholders in academic mobility, recognition, or digital credentialing policies

🧭 Strategic relevance

The project supports Europe’s Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds strategy and directly contributes to long-term digital sovereignty by offering a trust and skills infrastructure that is modular, machine-readable, and resilient to future quantum threats — without overstretching current technical capabilities or budgets.

📨 Contact us: DiTELC Switzerland