RESEARCH
Research activities at CertX are conducted at the intersection of functional safety, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. This unique perspective empowers our partners in enabling the development of safer, more secure, and trustworthy solutions across safety- and security-critical domains, including healthcare, mobility, and robotics.
EU Projects
Horizon Europe and EU-funded research projects.
Swiss Projects
Projects with Swiss authorities, universities and companies.
Advice/Services
Secondments and industry-focused expert support.
European Research Projects
RobustifAI (2025-2028) - Reliable, Robust, and Trustworthy GenAI
CertX is a partner in European project RobustifAI. The project aims to develop a rigorous design and deployment methodology tailored for reliable, robust, and trustworthy Generative Artificial Intelligence. Focusing on foundation models used in the context of human cyber-physical systems which are complex systems that combine computation, networking, humans and physical processes to monitor and control real-world environments with applications in many sectors.
CertX activities in the project include:
- derive requirements from standardisation and regulations for human-centric and robust GenAI
- ensure consistency of requirements and their expressions in specification language for GenAI
- ensure that sensitivity, stability, and vulnerability analyses performed are compliant with existing norms
- ensure that the Operational Design Domain (ODD) coverage for logic-assisted chain-of-thought reasoning agents are in accordance with the legislation and norms, including the corner cases.
- ensure that best practices for transparency for different stakeholders and human oversight requirements are met. In particular, the requirements of EU AI Act and standards such as ISO/IEC TS 8200 (controllability of automated AI systems) and ISO/IEC 6254 (objectives and approaches for explainability of AI systems) will be regarded as actionable guides.
- analyse the relevance of the developed statistical methods for GenAI verification in various contexts, in line with ISO 24029-3
OPEVA (2023-2026) - Optimization of Electric Vehicle Autonomy
CertX is partner in the European project OPEVA which is dedicated to advancing electric vehicle (EV) technology, focusing on enhancing energy efficiency, integrating intelligent battery management systems, optimizing dynamic routing, improving charging processes, and leveraging AI for advanced modeling and control.
CertX activities in the project include:
- for design optimization of charging station interfaces, derive cyber security requirements according to IEC62443
- perform concept analysis following standards such as ISO 21434
- evaluate the collection, usage, long term storage and treatment of potential personally identifiable information according to EU regulations such as GDPR
- help to ensure that the BMS and its environment have been developed according to state of the art in safety and security and standards such as ISO26262 and ISO21434
- support the adoption of the Functional Safety Requirements into the complete battery system architecture design according to ISO26262
- assess the contribution of thermal management system in meeting the requirements according to ISO26262
- with regards to the physical topology of BMS, incl. DC/DC, OBC and battery pack, support with the Functional and Technical Safety Concept and computing verification metrics according to ISO26262
- perform quantitative hardware analysis (FMEDA), check freedom from interference and do dependent fault analysis
- carry out the whole safety analysis for system and hardware level
ORCHESTRA (2021-2024) - Traffic Management of All Transport Modes Across the EU
CertX was a partner in the European project ORCHESTRA which aimed to Coordinate and synchronise the traffic management of all transport modes across the EU.
The consortium proposed and evaluated an architecture and tools that enable multimodal traffic management by connecting services to make mobility and logistics run smoothly and cope with diverse demands and situations.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953618. Disclaimer excluding Agency responsibility.
CertX main activities in the project included:
- participation in pre-studies on the target vision and scenarios
- support in creation and running of training material and events
- conducting research and evaluations to identify gaps in standards or regulations affecting project objectives
- formulation of lessons learned and recommendations from the project activities following developments
AWARD (2020-2024) - All Weather Autonomous Logistic Operations
CertX was a partner in the European project AWARD (2020-2024) to autonomize heavy-vehicles for logistics operations. The project focused on scaling autonomous logistics safely to all weather conditions. The final goal of AWARD was to enable an overall autonomous logistic chain through safe and efficient connected and automated heavy-duty vehicles in real logistics operations.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101006817.Â
CertX main activities in the project included:
- Definition of safety performance certification requirements for harsh weather based on SOTIF ISO 21484
- Definition of the acceptance criteria for the perception and localization algorithms including those using AI
- Inspection of the safety relevant system before operation
- Identification of the Operational security requirement based on ISO 21434 and IEC 62443
- SOTIF activities Document; Safety Evaluation report (confidential and public versions) : Compliance report, Assessment report
- Evaluation of the safety acceptance criteria defined earlier in the project
- Technical evaluation, site assessments and results reporting
- Identification, combination and interpretation of all the applicable safety and cybersecurity requirements defined by UNECE GRVA, ISO, UL, IEC and European commission, report writing
Swiss Research Projects
MB4_20_02G SOC (2023-2025) - Roadmap for Swiss C-ITS Security Operation Center
CertX is the leader of the project funded by the Working Group MB4 of the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO). The project’s objectives are to assess the necessity of a national SOC tailored to the C-ITS context, to explore viable models for its establishment and operation, and to provide a practical roadmap for implementation within the Swiss context.
CertX activities in the project include:
- Project organization & coordination
- State-of-the-Art of Security Operation Center for transportation environment / C-ITS
- C-ITS – SOC framework proposal
- C-ITS – SOC roadmap proposal
- Synergies & (inter-) national alignment
CertAInty (2022-2024) - A Certification Scheme for AI Systems
CertX is the industrial partner in the Swiss research project certAInty – A Certification Scheme for AI systems. The project develops a validated certification scheme tailored to AI and machine-learning–enabled systems, with a focus on safety-critical and high-reliability applications.
Together with ZHAW’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence, certAInty translates emerging AI regulations and standards into concrete certification requirements, technical criteria, and verification methods. The outcome is a practical workflow that allows accredited certification bodies to assess the trustworthiness of AI systems across their lifecycle – from data preparation and model development to deployment and operation.
CertX activities in the project include:
- Define business-driven requirements for certifying AI systems based on real industrial use cases
- Co-develop the AI Certification Scheme that maps laws, regulations, and standards to concrete certification requirements and assessment criteria
- Help translate certification requirements into measurable AI/ML performance indicators (e.g. robustness, generalisation, transparency, safety)
- Contribute to the definition of means of compliance, identifying suitable technical and algorithmic methods and tools for ML model assessment
- Evaluate and improve methods for:
- dataset coverage and quality
- model robustness and generalisation
- resilience to adversarial or unexpected inputs
- explainability and transparency for auditors and users
- Build and validate a prototype certification workflow and toolchain
- Validate the complete scheme on real-world industrial use cases
Visit project details > https://www.aramis.admin.ch/Beteiligte/?ProjectID=51241
MB4_20_02C_01 Cyber Threat (2021-2024) - Cyber Threat Intelligence Framework and Recommendations for C-ITS
CertX led the project funded by the Working Group MB4 of the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO). Based on a solid experience in the field of mobility and the vectors of cyber security and functional safety, the research unit in charge of this project will first establish and document a knowledge base concerning C-ITS environments (architectures, protocols, etc.), the potential cyber threats concerning them and their known vulnerabilities. Based on this knowledge, as well as on approaches applied in other sectors, the research unit will develop an adequate cyber risk assessment method in order to provide national authorities with an efficient cyber threat identification tool.
In order to validate this method, a practical part will aim to develop a virtual simulation of C-ITS environment, as well as to stimulate it in order to verify the viability of the risk analysis model developed in the first part of the project.<
This project will provide the national authorities with the following elements
– Knowledge base regarding the critical elements of C-ITS from a cyber perspective
– Proposal of a cyber risk assessment scheme for C-ITS
– Demonstration and experimentation platform allowing the simulation and evaluation of cyber risks based on virtualized environment
CertX activities in the project include:
- Project organization & coordination
- State-of-the-Art of Threat Intelligence in C-ITS context and research activities
- Development of virtual platforms / testbench for cyber threat simulation
- Development of a C-ITS related threat modeling methodology & supporting tools
- Proof of Concept – Automated application of cyber threat assessment on virtual testbench
Visit project website > https://www.aramis.admin.ch/Grunddaten/?ProjectID=49812&Sprache=en-US/
Other Research Engagements
ULTIMO (2022-2026) - Advancing Sustainable User-centric Mobility with Automated Vehicles
CertX is an associate partner in European project Ultimo (through SAAM – Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility). The ULTIMO project aims to set the foundations and deploy the very first economically viable large-scale, on-demand, and passenger-oriented Automated Vehicle (AV) public transportation services. By adopting a holistic approach to AV deployment that considers all elements in a cross-sector business environment, ULTIMO aims to truly unlock the integration of AVs into cities with on-demand and door-to-door services, allowing for more sustainable, accessible, and inclusive mobility.
- Defining the state of the art for vehicle capabilities to ensure safety and operational readiness
- Establishing Operational Design Domain (ODD) criteria aligned with ISO 34503 and BSI PAS 1883 standards
- Providing guidance on the Swiss authorization process for pilot projects
- Matching vehicle capabilities with mobility needs to optimize user-oriented public transport services
- Defining intelligent transport services management, including KPIs and service prioritization
- Conducting cybersecurity risk assessments for automated vehicles and connected services to ensure secure operation
CHORUS (2025-2028) - Coordination of Heterogeneous Actors in Mixed Traffic within CCAM
CertX is an associate partner in European project Chorus (through SAAM – Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility). CHORUS is an EU project advancing connected, cooperative and automated mobility (CCAM) through a unified orchestration framework that enhances road safety, efficiency and sustainability. By integrating diverse transport modes with AVs and conventional vehicles, deploying AI-driven traffic management and fostering public-private collaboration, the EU-funded CHORUS project will deliver innovative, multi-layer solutions tested across seven European demonstration sites to reduce congestion, improve mobility and support EU climate and safety goals.
CertX activities in the project include:
- Technical and societal requirements analysis and specification
- Safety and legal compliance mechanisms to ensure trust and acceptance within the CCAM ecosystem
- Real-life Demonstrations management and results consolidation
- Training & capacity building
- Standardization, regulation and policy recommendations
More information > https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101202981/
New Research Project Opportunities?
If you are looking for a project partner to support functional safety, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence activities, especially assessment, verification and validation activities with reference to international standards or EU standards and regulations, get in touch with us.