(openPR) - International IBM Research Prize for Fraunhofer FOKUS
Berlin, 16th of December 2009 – Fraunhofer FOKUS is now gaining laurels for its research activities regarding the electronic safe for data and documents. IBM awarded the Shared University Research Grant, which included prize money of 50,000 US dollars, to Prof. Dr. Radu Popescu-Zeletin, director of Fraunhofer FOKUS, on 15th of December 2009 in Berlin.
“With the award of the Shared University Research Grant we want to acknowledge the outstanding quality of the research activities of Fraunhofer FOKUS in the field of data security research in the eGovernment environment,” said Erwin Jung, director of IBM Science Relations. Together with IBM, the experts at Fraunhofer FOKUS are working on reliable data security technologies. “Our goal is to develop secure data management,” explains Prof. Dr. Radu Popescu-Zeletin. “This is the only way to create the necessary acceptance in the public administrations to increasingly utilise Internet-based services.”
In the project “Electronic Safe” Fraunhofer FOKUS collaborates with IBM to improve security of personal data on the Internet. Focus of research activities is the conception and realisation of a virtual safe for personal data and digital documents. The “Electronic Safe” shall facilitate citizens’ electronic access to the public administration and provide them with suitable tools to control and understand the use of personal data. The administration gains access to high-quality data and documents via the “Electronic Safe” that were explicitly released by the citizen.
As cooperation partner, IBM contributes the software “IBM Identity Mixer“ (Idemix). It allows users to identify each other on the Internet without revealing their own identity. Fraunhofer FOKUS and IBM will use the Research Grant as an opportunity to intensify their research cooperation. Both partners want to further develop the electronic data safe until CeBIT 2010.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems, Fraunhofer FOKUS for short, is a Berlin-based research facility devoted to studying and developing communication and information technologies. In particular, it specializes in multi-domain networks and interoperable, user-centered solutions.
With more than 20 years experience, Fraunhofer FOKUS is an important IT research partner for the telecommunications sector, the automobile indus¬try, media services, and public administrations. It frequently cooperates with governmental agencies and software companies to create need-oriented e-government solutions and is a leading collaborator in projects funded by the European Union as well as by national-level sponsors.

Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS, Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31 10589, Berlin, Germany
T +49 (0)30 3463 7212, eva.sittig@fokus.fraunhofer.de