One of the frequently asked questions is about how the EU funding works. Here you are: About 80% of EU funding is granted through programmes managed in the EU countries themselves, while a certain percentage is distributed centrally directly from the European Commission. To access EU grants managed by EU Member States, you should apply via the relevant regional or national authorities (known as managing authorities) in the member state where you are registered. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture in your country is responsible for funding for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. The allocation of direct funding capital is managed by the European Institutions. There are two types of funding available: grants and contracts. Various agencies of the European Commission manage central funds via their allocation to projects emerged through a competitive procedure i.e. via calls for proposals or tenders.

UX Design refers to the term User Experience Design, while UI Design stands for User Interface Design. We can describe User Interface Design as the things users see when navigating a digital product and User Experience Design as the feeling they have while doing that.

The UX Design process helps you continuously polish and improve designs. The process usually includes 4 key stages: user research, design, testing, and implementation.

The most fundamental difference between UX design and service design is the nature of the design problem that they are trying to solve. UX designers typically solve problems that are confined to an individual product, or to individual “touchpoints” within a service. In terms of today’s industry, UX design very often refers to the design of digital products like websites and apps, e.g. an airline hires a UX designer to develop an app that helps people make and manage their bookings. An airline is likely to consult a service designer if their focus is at the system level, rather than on individual touchpoints including an app. If the airline gets consistently poor reviews from customers but can’t clearly identify problems with any particular touchpoint, it will hire a Service Designer to take a look at the big picture of how its service is functioning.

The UX timeline of a project depends on the scope of the project, project goals, and priorities of key stakeholders involved. It could be done on a single stretch or as phases. A typical UX Design project could go anywhere between 3-6 months for small-medium sized projects.

Design thinking is a human-centered process for solving problems that results in effective, innovative solutions.  It focuses on humans first and foremost, seeking to understand people’s needs and come up with effective solutions to meet those needs. It is based heavily on the methods and processes that designers use (hence the name), but it has actually evolved from a range of different fields—including architecture, engineering and business. It includes a series of specific steps that must be done in a specific order and a set of core principles. The steps are observations, insights, ideas, and prototypes — which are followed cyclically . The principles are empathy, thinking by doing, iteration, and collaboration. It is a way to radically increase the likelihood that you are going to have success when you are trying to solve a problem or do something new.

Cybersecurity is a broad term that includes technologies, policies, and procedures that protect networked computer systems from unauthorized use or harm. Cybersecurity solutions secure technology systems responsible for moving, storing, and authenticating data. For businesses, cybersecurity encompasses the technology that’s in place to help keep your business safe, the people and processes that ensure your business stays safe, and the education to ensure your employees remain vigilant against potential cyberthreats. Broadly speaking, cybersecurity topics can be subdivided into two complementary areas: cyber attacks, which are essentially offensive and emphasize network penetration techniques; and cyber defenses, which are essentially protective and emphasize counter-measures intended to eliminate or mitigate cyber attacks.

Malware, short for malicious software, is a program or file that is intentionally harmful to your computer, network, or website. These types of cyberthreats infect your system to gather sensitive data, disrupt operations, or spy on your digital activity. Common examples of malware include viruses, ransomware, Trojans, spyware, keyloggers, and worms.

Ransomware is a specific type of cyberattack where the attacker forces you to pay a ransom fee to regain access to your system or files. Common types of ransomware attacks include scareware, lock-screen ransomware, and encryption ransomware.

Encryption is the process of taking plain text, like a text message or email, and scrambling it into an unreadable format — called “cipher text.” This helps protect the confidentiality of digital data either stored on computer systems or transmitted through a network like the internet. It helps provide data security for sensitive information. When the intended recipient accesses the message, the information is translated back to its original form. This is called decryption. To unlock the message, both the sender and the recipient have to use a “secret” encryption key — a collection of algorithms that scramble and unscramble data back to a readable format.

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is a European Union law that was implemented May 25, 2018, and requires organizations to safeguard personal data and uphold the privacy rights of anyone in EU territory. The regulation includes seven principles of data protection that must be implemented and eight privacy rights that must be facilitated. It also empowers member state-level data protection authorities to enforce the GDPR with sanctions and fines. The GDPR replaced the 1995 Data Protection Directive, which created a country-by-country patchwork of data protection laws. The GDPR, passed in European Parliament by overwhelming majority, unifies the EU under a single data protection regime.

Any organization that processes the personal data of people in the EU must comply with the GDPR. “Processing” is a broad term that covers just about anything you can do with data: collection, storage, transmission, analysis, etc. “Personal data” is any information that relates to a person, such as names, email addresses, IP addresses, eye color, political affiliation, and so on. Even if an organization is not connected to the EU itself, if it processes the personal data of people in the EU (via tracking on its website, for instance), it must comply. The GDPR is also not limited to for-profit companies.

The GDPR requires organizations to implement “appropriate technical and organizational measures” to secure personal data and provides a short list of options for doing so, including encryption. In many cases, encryption is the most feasible method of securing personal data. For instance, if you regularly send emails within your organization that contain personal information, it may be more efficient to use an encrypted email service than to anonymize the information each time.