Cooperative ITS and V2X communication promise a new age of safer, more efficient, and more comfortable road traffic. However, this promise can only be fulfilled if those systems are designed and implemented in secure way where they cannot be abused by malicious attackers and where the personal data processed by them is not subject to abuse and privacy violations.The goal of PRESERVE (Preparing Secure Vehicle-to-X Communication Systems) is to bring secure and privacy-protected V2X communication closer to reality by providing and field testing a security and privacy subsystem for V2X systems. PRESERVE will combine and extend results from earlier research projects, integrating and developing them to a pre-deployment stage by enhancing scalability, reducing the cost-level, and addressing open deployment issues. It aims at providing a comprehensive protection ranging from the vehicle sensors, through the on-board network and V2V/V2I communication, to the receiving application. As a result, PRESERVE will present a complete, scalable, and cost-efficient V2X security subsystem that is close-to-market and will be provided to other FOT projects and interested parties for ongoing testing.Field testing will investigate a number of important scalability and feasibility issues. Further, the V2X security subsystem will also be provided to other projects to jointly investigate integration and performance in larger fleets of vehicles.Another strategic objective of PRESERVE is to contribute to on-going harmonization and standardization efforts on the European level.