PROTECT-CHILD at the Privacy Symposium 2026: Shaping the Future of Health Data in Venice
Last week, the PROTECT-CHILD team traveled to Venice, Italy, for the Privacy Symposium 2026. Bringing together global stakeholders, regulators, and innovators, the symposium served as a critical platform for discussing the future of data protection in research and technology.
For a project like PROTECT-CHILD, which relies on the secure, ethical handling of sensitive pediatric and genomic data, staying at the forefront of these regulatory discussions is non-negotiable.
Navigating a Rapidly Evolving Landscape
The intersection of healthcare, artificial intelligence, and privacy law is shifting faster than ever. For our project, the Symposium offered a chance to dive deep into the practical impacts of these changes.
“Attending the Privacy Symposium 2026 in Venice has been a valuable opportunity to understand how rapidly evolving legal, ethical, and technological frameworks are impacting personal data management in PROTECT-CHILD’s design, implementation, and deployment,” shared Franco Mercalli from MultiMed Engineering.
“The most interesting aspects have been the practical impact of new regulations (like the Biotech Act and Digital Omnibus), trust and accountability in medical data sharing, the challenges of AI and secondary data use, and emerging topics like digital twins, synthetic data, and evolving standards around anonymization.”
Cross-Fertilization and EU Collaboration
Beyond the panels, the Symposium was a prime opportunity to connect directly with regulators and fellow researchers. We were thrilled to collaborate on the ground with our attending partners from UDGA and UPM to raise awareness of our ongoing work.
“The Privacy Symposium is a great opportunity to showcase the advances of EU research to global stakeholders and regulators in particular,” noted another PROTECT-CHILD representative. “It enabled us to get direct feedback and advance on the project goals through significant discussions and cross-fertilization of ideas with best practices from other industrial and academic fields,” said Adrian Quesada Rodriguez from UDG Alliance.
Looking Ahead
As we continue to build a secure, privacy-preserving infrastructure for pediatric transplants, the insights gathered in Venice will directly inform our approach to GDPR compliance, the European Health Data Space (EHDS), and ethical data sharing.
