ACCOMPLISH

Challenges 

Artificial Intelligence (AI), data technologies, and the Internet of Things present a wide range of compliance requirements for companies and public organizations, particularly due to European and national regulatory frameworks. For organizations, meeting these requirements is crucial — not only to avoid legal violations or reputational damage, but also to uphold their responsibility toward society and their customers. 

However, as regulatory requirements become more numerous and complex, achieving compliance is increasingly challenging. Some regulations may conflict with each other or lack clarity. Compliance is often only considered late in development and operational processes, which increases effort and cost. Many organizations still manage compliance tasks manually and in isolation, often requiring substantial time and resources. Small and mediumsizedsized enterprises (SMEs) in particular often lack the necessary resources to align the many different requirements. Moreover, newly introduced regulations make it difficult for organizations to keep up with developments.

In this context, automation holds significant potential to make compliance processes in companies and public institutions more efficient and consistent. However, the technologies required to enable this are still under development.

Solution / Approach

ACCOMPLISH aims to support organizations in implementing the multitude of regulatory compliance requirements more effectively. The Horizon-Europe-project focuses on simplifying compliance processes related to the use, management, and sharing of data, with a particular emphasis on AI technologies. The goal is to enable organizations to handle data-driven technologies and AI responsibly and in full legal compliance, while enabling innovation in a legally compliant manner.

To achieve this, ACCOMPLISH is developing tools that support automated compliance assessment, certification support, and monitoring. These tools aim to work both at the organizational level and for individual models or specific datasets. Based on these assessments, the system generates explainable recommendations for improving compliance that are tailored to different user groups and easy to understand. 

A central aspect of the ACCOMPLISH tools is transparency. Participants should be able to trace the processes and be actively involved through a human-in-the-loop approach, ensuring that automation supports — rather than replaces — human judgment. ACCOMPLISH also follows principles of “compliant-by-design” (integrating compliance requirements from the outset) and “compliant -by-default” (configuring systems so they meet compliance requirements by default). 

This approach enables compliance-aware processes such as data collection, security assessments, and model oversight to be designed correctly from the beginning. 

Our Contribution

The Digital Public Services division at Fraunhofer FOKUS coordinates a work package focused on identifying current and future regulatory compliance requirements for the use of AI and data processing. This work considers both EU-wide regulatory compliance and industry-specific standards. A key focus is on implementing machine-readable versions of existing compliance guidelines. 

In collaboration with external partners, Fraunhofer FOKUS is developing compliance knowledge systems, including compliance models, ontologies, and knowledge graphs. In addition, FOKUS is building tools for assessing and testing compliance requirements to support organizations in systematically understanding and demonstrating conformity with regulations. 

Validation

ACCOMPLISH tools and services will be tested and validated in realworldworld environments with companies operating in the energy, automotive, robotics & manufacturing, and aviation sectors, ensuring that the solutions are applicable and effective across diverse industries.