iDAKTO is pleased to announce its participation in the CarMen project, an EU-funded initiative focused on making border crossings smoother, faster and more secure through the use of biometrics on the move and Digital Travel Credentials (DTCs).
Over the past decade, the number of people crossing Schengen borders has been steadily increasing, driven largely by leisure travel. Expanding airports, ports or land border infrastructure is costly, time-consuming and environmentally unsustainable, while longer queues negatively affect both travellers and border authorities. The CarMen project addresses this growing challenge by rethinking border checks in real-life operational conditions, ensuring efficiency without compromising security, trust or privacy.
The project also demonstrates the benefits of Digital Travel Credentials and integrates behaviour analysis to support anomaly detection, ensuring that increased speed at borders goes hand in hand with strong security guarantees.
As a technology provider within the consortium, iDAKTO contributes its iDCluster® platform, which enables the secure provisioning of DTCs into mobile applications and supports trusted data exchange at scale. Fully aligned with international standards, including OpenID4VCI/OpenID4VP and ISO/IEC 18013-7, iDCluster® is designed with security and privacy by default, ensuring GDPR compliance and giving users control over their personal data.
The impact of CarMen is twofold. For border authorities and industry stakeholders, the project offers a scalable and interoperable approach to managing growing traveller flows without the need for extensive infrastructure expansion, while reinforcing fraud prevention. For travellers, it promises shorter waiting times, a document-free journey and reassurance that privacy and consent are respected throughout the process. Running until 2027, with final trials planned at the Port of Le Havre, the CarMen project will demonstrate how smoother border crossings and stronger security can be achieved simultaneously. Through its participation, iDAKTO contributes to making trusted digital identity a key enabler of the future of travel.