PDP4E project

What PDP4E project does

PDP4E (Privacy Data Protection for Engineering) was a European Union Horizon 2020 research consortium operating from 2018 to 2021 under grant agreement No 787034 (DS-08-2017 call). The consortium aggregated 8 European partners — TRIALOG (France, coordinator), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain, technical lead), CEA (France), Fundación Tecnalia (Spain), KU Leuven CITIP (Belgium), Eclipse Foundation Europe (Germany), University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), and Beawre (Spain) — to develop open-source methods and tools that integrate privacy and GDPR compliance into mainstream software and systems engineering workflows.

The project produced four integrated tools covering the privacy engineering lifecycle: a Risk Management Tool built on the LINDDUN threat-modeling methodology, the PDP4E-Req Requirements Engineering Tool for automated GDPR requirements elicitation from system models, the PDPbD (Privacy and Data Protection by Design) Framework for model-driven design on Papyrus UML, and the OpenCert assurance/certification tool for Cyber-Physical Systems. All tools are released as open-source modules within the Eclipse Papyrus ecosystem under EPL-2 licence. Pilots demonstrated applicability in connected vehicles and smart grid/big data domains. Total public funding was approximately €4.5M; there is no commercial pricing, revenue stream, or monetization vehicle, and the project formally concluded in 2021 with continuation attempted via the volunteer Models4Privacy Interest Group under Eclipse Foundation governance.

Name

PDP4E project

Legal name

PDP4E (Privacy Data Protection for Engineering)

Website

https://pdp4e-project.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

PDP4E was an EU Horizon 2020 research consortium (2018-2021) that developed four open-source tools for integrating GDPR compliance into software engineering workflows, targeting engineering teams in connected vehicles, smart grid, and other privacy-critical sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Privacy Engineering Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Data Privacy, Consent & Compliance Management (HDAEADAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

DevSecOps & Supply Chain Security (DevOps toolchain security) (BPAEAKAI)

Keywords

• Privacy engineering tools
• GDPR compliance software
• Model-driven engineering
• Data protection engineering
• Privacy by design

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research Project Funding: Funded by European Union Horizon 2020 research program (H2020 DS-08-2017 call). Project ran from 2018-2021 with €4.5M+ EU funding. Outputs delivered as open-source tools.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

PDP4E develops and releases open-source software tools that help software and systems engineers integrate GDPR-compliant privacy and data protection into mainstream engineering workflows. Its toolset covers risk management, requirements engineering, privacy-aware model-driven design, and certification assurance, all delivered as modules within the Eclipse Papyrus ecosystem.

Product overview

PDP4E (Privacy Data Protection for Engineering) is an H2020 European research project (2018-2021) that developed a suite of four integrated open-source tools for GDPR compliance through privacy engineering. The toolkit consists of: (1) Risk Management Tool for analyzing privacy-related vulnerabilities using LINDDUN methodology; (2) PDP4E-Req for automated requirements elicitation from GDPR provisions; (3) PDPbD Framework for model-driven privacy-aware design using Papyrus; and (4) OpenCert for assurance case management and evidence collection. All tools are designed to integrate with mainstream software engineering workflows and are released as open-source modules, primarily within the Eclipse Papyrus ecosystem.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PDP4E Risk Management Tool: Open-source tool enabling engineers to analyze software development risks related to data protection and privacy, using LINDDUN as baseline for threat analysis methodology
• PDP4E-Req Tool
• PDPbD Framework
• OpenCert

Products and services

• PDP4E Risk Management Tool Open-source tool that enables software and systems engineers to analyze privacy and data protection risks in software development, connecting low-level vulnerabilities, threats, and mitigation actions with high-level GDPR concepts. Uses LINDDUN as the baseline for privacy threat analysis and includes dashboards, automated vulnerability detectors, and a kanban view for agile risk management.
• PDP4E-Req Requirements Engineering Tool Open-source requirements engineering tool that supports engineers during elicitation of requirements integrating GDPR provisions and privacy principles. Given a model of the system-to-be, the tool automatically generates requirements to ensure system compliance with GDPR provisions.
• PDPbD (Privacy and Data Protection by Design) Framework Model-driven engineering framework that provides designers and companies with tools to create system and software models aligned to their development cycle, amenable to enrichment and validation for conformity with GDPR and privacy requirements. Combines data-oriented, process-oriented, and architecture views within the Papyrus UML environment.
• OpenCert Assurance Management Tool Integrated open-source solution for assurance and certification management of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), extended to cover GDPR compliance. Supports modelling of privacy standards and regulations into reference frameworks, assurance project lifecycle management, assurance case management, evidence management, and compliance reporting. Linked with the Papyrus, CHESS and EPF Eclipse projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• Open-source toolset freely available for engineering teams to implement GDPR compliance
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

18 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major, moderate and minor.

• Eclipse FoundationcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2018Eclipse Foundation hosts PDP4E tools within Papyrus ecosystem. Provides infrastructure for open-source development, community building, and sustainability of project outputs. Facilitates engagement with broader Eclipse developer community. Philippe Krief represents Eclipse Foundation in consortium.
• TRIALOGcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEngineering company specializing in complex systems, cyber security and privacy. Leads project management, Connected Vehicle pilot, and risk management tool development. Coordinator Antonio Kung leads overall project. Based in Paris, France.
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLargest technical university in Spain with Telematics Systems Engineering Department. Holds technical and scientific leadership of project. Responsible for overall requirements, architecture, methodological framework, and scientific dissemination.
• CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFrench technological research organization. Leads requirements engineering and model-driven engineering tool development. Contributes Smart Grid pilot leadership and technical support for toolset architecture. Lab LISE leads Papyrus UML open-source modeling environment development.
• Fundación Tecnalia Research & InnovationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLeading private research and technology organization in Spain and Europe. Leads Assurance compliance tool development. Contributes to architecture design, risk management tool implementation, and Big Data on Smart Grid pilot. Employs around 1,300 people.
• KU Leuven CITIPcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInterdisciplinary Centre for Information Technology and Intellectual Property at KU Leuven Faculty of Law. Responsible for privacy and data protection legal requirements elicitation, validation, and ethical assessment. Over 40 researchers specialized in legal and ethical aspects of IT.
• University of Duisburg-Essen (paluno)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRuhr Institute for Software Engineering with 8 professors and 100+ academic staff. Contributes to toolset architecture, meta-models, and privacy requirements engineering. Leverages existing ProPAn privacy requirements engineering method and taxonomies.
• BeawrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCompany providing risk management solutions for regulated environments. Leads risk management tool development and main contribution to model-driven design. Focus on automotive sector, construction, e-health, and transportation. Team averages 7+ years experience in risk management.
• ISO/PC 317 (Consumer Protection)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational standardization group for privacy by design for consumer goods and services. Liaison created during PC317 Paris meeting. Enables PDP4E participation in ISO/AWI 31700 standard development discussions. Standard will establish foundation for consumer trust through protection of goods and services.
• Models4Privacy Interest Group (Eclipse)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNew interest group launched to expand on PDP4E efforts. Goal to build broad community for privacy-by-model concepts and standardization beyond GDPR requirements. Developing open and reusable engineering models for privacy protection across consumer and IoT applications.
• GDPR Cluster Projects (H2020 DS-08-2017)moderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerCluster collaboration with SMOOTH, DEFEND, PAPAYA, POSEIDON, BPR4GDPR projects. Joint dissemination activities, shared booth at Annual Privacy Forum 2019 Rome, exchange of visions and coordination on GDPR compliance solutions.
• ENACT H2020 ProjectmoderateTechnology or IntegrationKnowledge base created in PDP4E in collaboration with ENACT H2020 project. Shared methodologies for continuous risk management and system trustworthiness.
• PARiS ProjectminorOthersRelated European research project in privacy and security domain. Listed as related project on PDP4E website.
• DEFEND ProjectminorOthersRelated EU research project on data protection. Part of GDPR cluster collaboration.
• Linddun ProjectmoderateTechnology or IntegrationMethodology used as baseline for PDP4E threat analysis. Linddun provides privacy threat modeling framework integrated into PDP4E risk management tool for identifying and mitigating privacy threats.
• RestAssured H2020 ProjectminorOthersRelated EU Horizon 2020 project. Listed as related project on PDP4E website.
• PRiPare ProjectminorOthersRelated European research project in privacy engineering. Listed as related project on PDP4E website.
• OW2moderateGTM or Marketing PartnerOpen-source middleware organization. Co-organizes Open Research Webinars series with Eclipse Foundation featuring PDP4E project.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• Eclipse Foundation: Hosts PDP4E's tools within its Papyrus open-source ecosystem. Relevant as the foundational platform and community infrastructure on which PDP4E's tools are distributed, not as a competitor but as a key enabling partner.

Broad incumbents

• IBM Security Guardium: Enterprise data security and compliance platform addressing GDPR Article 32 (security of processing) requirements. Comparable in addressing privacy and data protection engineering requirements with mature commercial tooling.
• OneTrust: Largest privacy management software platform, offering comprehensive GDPR compliance, consent management, and privacy program tools. Comparable as a broad incumbent addressing the same regulatory compliance problem PDP4E targets, though with commercial SaaS delivery vs. open-source research tooling.
• BigID: Data intelligence platform for privacy, security, and governance with capabilities in data discovery, classification, and GDPR compliance. Comparable in addressing privacy engineering challenges; BigID focuses on data-layer visibility while PDP4E focuses on engineering workflow integration.
• Collibra: Enterprise data intelligence and governance platform including data privacy and consent management capabilities. Comparable in the data governance and privacy compliance management category, though broader in scope than PDP4E's engineering-focused toolset.
• TrustArc: Enterprise privacy management platform covering GDPR, CCPA, and global privacy regulation. Comparable as it addresses the same GDPR compliance challenges PDP4E tackles, with broader product surface but less engineering-integration depth.
• Microsoft Priva: Microsoft's privacy management solution integrated with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem for automated privacy risk management and subject rights requests. Comparable as an incumbent privacy management platform targeting enterprise GDPR compliance workflows.

Direct peers

• Securiti: Unified data privacy and security platform with AI-driven automation for GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations. Comparable as a direct competitor targeting the same automated privacy compliance space with similar full-lifecycle tooling approach.
• Privitar (now part of Inrupt): Data privacy engineering platform providing de-identification, policy management, and privacy-safe data sharing capabilities. Comparable as a direct peer in privacy-by-design engineering tooling with focus on integrating privacy into data workflows.

Emerging players

• WireWheel: Privacy operations and engineering platform for managing GDPR and CCPA compliance programs with collaborative tools for engineering and legal teams. Comparable as an emerging player bridging legal privacy requirements with engineering implementation—the exact gap PDP4E targets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/pdp4e
• GitHubgithub.com/eclipse-researchlabs/pdp4e-rm-API
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pdp4e-project

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about PDP4E project