UBITECH announces its participation in SONIC (Strategic Isolation and Policy-driven Attack Surface Reduction), a newly launched action co-funded by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union. The project officially kicked off on 16 February 2026 in Athens, Greece, with the launch event graciously hosted by ATHENA Research Center. SONIC is coordinated by the Technical University of Crete (TUC) and brings together a consortium of distinguished European partners. Running from January 2026 to December 2028, the 36-month initiative is registered under Grant Agreement No. 101168486 and represents a significant step forward in the European effort to build more secure and resilient digital ecosystems. The digital landscape is increasingly threatened by vulnerabilities embedded within software and hardware supply chains, compounded by the inherent complexities of deploying systems across heterogeneous infrastructures. SONIC addresses these pressing challenges head-on by designing and developing a suite of novel technologies specifically aimed at tackling intricate security issues arising from such vulnerabilities. The project’s overarching ambition is to fortify digital infrastructures and systems, substantially augmenting their overall resilience against evolving cyber threats.
Through innovative approaches to strategic isolation and policy-driven attack surface reduction, SONIC will deliver concrete technological outcomes that empower organisations across Europe to better understand, manage, and mitigate the risks inherent in today’s complex digital supply chains. The project’s results will be validated through real-world pilots and will contribute directly to the broader European Digital Decade policy objectives.
Within the SONIC consortium, UBITECH assumes a broad and strategically significant role that spans quality assurance, requirements engineering, and dissemination. On the quality front, UBITECH establishes and enforces the project’s quality assurance framework, aligning with internationally recognised standards including ISO 9004:2018 and IEEE 1012-2016. It defines quality methodologies, procedures, and control mechanisms, monitors adherence to time schedules, oversees deliverable quality, and ensures proper documentation of requirements, responsibilities, and acceptance criteria throughout the project lifecycle. UBITECH further oversees the risk management plan, encompassing the identification, continuous monitoring, and mitigation of project risks, while also managing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) across the consortium.
UBITECH also takes the lead in the collection and analysis of user and pilot requirements, continuously refining SONIC’s use cases to ensure their alignment with the project’s technological developments and validation processes. This requirements engineering work lays the essential foundation for subsequent technical development and evaluation activities. Additionally, UBITECH designs and implements the project’s dissemination and communication strategy, promoting SONIC’s results to the research community, industry, and the broader public. This involves coordinating outreach events, monitoring dissemination key performance indicators (KPIs), and integrating continuous stakeholder feedback to maximise the project’s visibility, impact, and contribution to the field of IoT supply chain security.
All technical contributions from UBITECH are delivered by its Data & AI Systems (DAI) Research Group (https://ubitech.eu/dai/), which brings specialised expertise in data-driven solutions, artificial intelligence, and systems engineering to the consortium.
“Supply chain security is one of the most multifaceted challenges facing modern digital infrastructures. Through SONIC, UBITECH’s Data & AI Systems Research Group will leverage its expertise to develop and validate innovative solutions that address vulnerabilities from the ground up — from hardware and software dependencies to deployment environments. We are proud to contribute to a project of this scope and look forward to delivering research outcomes that will have lasting impact on European cybersecurity.”
— Dr. Sophia Karagiorgou, Head of Data & AI Systems (DAI) Research Group, UBITECH
