Congratulations to Professor Claudio Orlandi who has been awarded a prestigious VILLUM Ascending Investigator grant for his project SPADE: Secure Privacy-preserving Analytics in Distributed Environments. The grant supports leading mid-career researchers with the potential to reach the highest international level and places him, together with eight other awardees, among a select group of researchers working to push the boundaries of technical and scientific research.
30 April 2026 by Sofia Hedegaard Rasmussen
Some describe data as “the new oil” — a powerful resource driving innovation in artificial intelligence, and digital services. But like oil, data also comes with risks. When large amounts of sensitive information are centralized, they become attractive targets for cyberattacks, misuse, and breaches of privacy.
The SPADE project addresses this challenge by developing new cryptographic methods that make it possible to analyse data without collecting it in one central place. This enables secure computation across distributed datasets.
“We are at a point where data is essential for innovation, but also increasingly difficult to handle responsibly. With SPADE, we want to show that it is possible to unlock the value of data without giving up privacy. This is crucial if we want AI to benefit society while maintaining trust,”
says Professor Claudio Orlandi
The project is built on two key technologies:
Together, these approaches will form the foundation for a new generation of scalable, secure, and privacy-preserving data analytics. By improving the efficiency and robustness of these methods and ensuring they are resilient to future threats such as quantum attacks, SPADE aims to make privacy-preserving analytics viable at the scale required by modern AI.
With growing concerns about data misuse, identity theft, and loss of digital trust, the need for secure data analysis has never been greater. SPADE addresses these challenges by enabling joint analysis of sensitive data across organisations — for example between hospitals or public authorities — without centralising the data.
Beyond its scientific contributions, the project is expected to strengthen Denmark’s international leadership in privacy-enhancing technologies and help shape the future of privacy-aware AI systems.
With the VILLUM Ascending Investigator grant, Orlandi will expand his research on cryptographic foundations for privacy in AI and data analytics - an area of growing importance for both science and society.
The VILLUM Ascending Investigator programme supports excellent researchers at a pivotal stage in their careers, providing them with the resources and freedom to pursue ambitious, high-impact ideas.
In 2026, Villum Fonden awards a total of DKK 162 million to nine researchers across Denmark. The programme is designed to help researchers consolidate their position internationally and advance research that addresses fundamental scientific challenges.
For more information, see the press release issued by the Villum Foundation.
