About the Project

OMEGA TRUST S.R.L., as Beneficiary, has been implementing starting with 13.10.2021, the research–development–innovation project entitled:

“Increasing the competitiveness of OMEGA TRUST through product innovation for the purpose of production and commercialization, based on RDI”, having MySMIS Code 2014+ 122088, co-financed through the Competitiveness Operational Programme, Priority Axis 1, Action 1.2.1., Call – POC/222/1/3/Stimulating enterprise demand for innovation through RDI projects carried out by individual enterprises or in partnership with research institutes and universities, for the purpose of process and product innovation in economic sectors with growth potential, Project type – Innovative technological project.

General Objective

The general objective of the project consists in introducing product innovation within the activity of Omega Trust in order to produce and commercialize the innovative platform OT DEFENDER – an innovative platform for the collection, analysis and intelligent reporting of cybersecurity incidents, by diversifying the activity of the company through products that have not previously been developed within the company, based on research and development in the smart specialization domain 2.1.1, within the economic sector with growth potential – ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

Through the implementation of the RDI project, the beneficiary OMEGA TRUST aims to develop an IT product – OT DEFENDER – an innovative platform for the collection, analysis and intelligent reporting of cybersecurity incidents which will manage the security of client companies’ networks in order to provide these companies with awareness of security alerts by collecting data (logs/entries from IT systems), analyzing them and intelligently reporting the results to ensure compliance with IT security standards and internal policies.

The platform aims to function as a command and monitoring center for an infrastructure that may include applications, hardware equipment (servers, laptops, etc.) and connectivity equipment (switches, routers, gateways, firewalls, IDS/IPS, etc.).

The services provided through OT DEFENDER will be delivered via internet or on-premise, through the development of connectors capable of integrating with existing infrastructure technologies in order to collect log-type events from all equipment or applications within the infrastructure.

OT DEFENDER will rely on infrastructure recognition through the interpretation of network data flows, combined with the correlation of security events and vulnerability assessment at application or endpoint level.

The result of the project – the OT DEFENDER platform – will be designed to collect data on events and data flows within the infrastructure and to generate security reports compliant with international security standards and beyond.

The total value of the project is RON 10,937,837.35, with a total eligible value of RON 10,558,849.00, of which the non-reimbursable financial assistance from the ERDF is RON 5,493,726.08 and from the national budget RON 1,373,431.52, while the Beneficiary’s private co-financing amounts to RON 4,070,679.75.

The project is implemented in Bucharest, at the Beneficiary’s premises, over a duration of 27 months (from 13.10.2021 to 30.12.2023).

Project Objectives

The main objective of the project consists in developing an innovative platform for the collection, analysis and intelligent reporting of cybersecurity incidents.

The specific objectives of the project are:

SO 1: Introduction of product innovation within Omega Trust’s activity under the RDI project implemented over the 27 months, for the development of the new innovative product – OT DEFENDER, applicable in the smart specialization domain – 2.1.1 Big Data analysis, management and security

SO 2: Diversification of the company’s activity in the RDI area through the development of the new innovative product OT DEFENDER within the company’s research department, for production and commercialization on the target market

SO 3: Creation of 6 new jobs for researchers, in addition to the existing 2 positions within Omega Trust, and maintaining them throughout the project implementation

SO 4: Ensuring a private investment of RON 4,070,679.75 combined with public support through POC, Action 121, for the implementation of the RDI project

SO 5: Increase of turnover to RON 4,173,300 by the end of the sustainability period of the project (year 3 of operation)

SO 6: Establishment of 2 partnerships with research entities for cooperation and involvement in other research projects (public or private) at regional, national or European level

SO 7: Development and promotion of 3 scientific co-publications by the end of the sustainability period

Planned Activities

• Project management
• Research management
• Strategic planning of the innovative platform – OT DEFENDER (industrial research activity)
• Experimental development activities – development of the general design of the OT DEFENDER platform
• Experimental development activities – development of the operational model and functional architecture
• Integration of the platform with existing market technologies and environments
• Experimental development activities – testing of the OT DEFENDER platform
• Information and publicity
• Investments in tangible assets required for R&D activities, consultancy services supporting research activities, and intangible assets for introducing results into production
• Audit activity
• Activities for introducing research results into production – OT DEFENDER platform

Expected Results

The results expected following the implementation and operation of the project are:

• New product introduced to the market – OT DEFENDER platform
  
• New researchers supported within the entity – 4.15 FTE
  
• 4 scientific publications resulting from the project
  
• 2 partnerships established with research entities for cooperation in RDI projects
  
• Achievement of a company turnover of RON 4.173 million (by the end of year 3 of sustainability)

Project Team

The RDI project team at project start is composed of the following experts: Project Director, Research Assistant, Software Developer 1 and Systems Analyst 1.

Information and Publicity

The following visibility and promotional activities have been carried out:

• Creation of a dedicated project promotion section
• Promotion of project launch announcement – link: 14-01-2022 (anuntul.ro)
• Installation of a temporary information panel at the project location
• 19 stickers applied to IT equipment purchased through the project
• 1 dissemination conference at the end of project implementation
• Promotion of project completion announcement – link: https://www.anuntul.ro/anunt-comunicat-de-presa-data-rmn1nK#0edWx6
• Installation of a permanent information panel at the project location
• Dissemination and promotion of project results through participation in the InnopRo – Innovation Pathways Romania Summit