ISOC-CH is a partner of the NGI0 Commons Fund

The ISOC Switzerland Chapter is proud to be one of the partners of the Horizon Europe project NGI0 Commons Fund, which started on January 1st 2024.

The project is part of the NGI0 NGI Zero coalition, led by NLnet Foundation, which uses a very flexible cascading funding scheme that enables a large number of carefully curated small grants (between 5 000 and 50 000 euro).

The role of ISOC Swtizerland Chapter in the project is to develop comprehensive guides (the so-called “tech dossiers”) for a selected set of topics for which free and open source software offers viable alternatives to commercial products, including tools, applications, and platforms that are evolving with the support of NGI0 to become the base of a more resilient, sovereign, and energy-efficient Next Generation Internet.

The funding programme is open to both individuals and organisations of any type with the condition that the project outcomes must be publicly available under a free and open license. The scope of the open calls is broad, meaning that all those working on technology commons across the entire technological spectrum can apply: from libre silicon chips to privacy-friendly augmented reality & AI, from alternative mobile operating systems to open office suites, and from end-to-end encrypted messaging applications to community-curated open data repositories.

The current call of NGI Zero Commons Fund opened up on June 1st 2024, with a deadline of October 1st 2024 12:00 CEST (noon). Check out the guide for applicants and the frequently asked questions.

So far well over five hundred projects have been funded by the NGI0 coalition, ranging from formally verified VPN tunnels, open app stores, privacy-preserving analytics to decentralised social media – and many more.

The team behind NGI Zero Commons Fund includes the following European partners: NLnet Foundation (NL) (program lead), OW2 (FR), Free Software Foundation Europe (DE), OpenForum Europe (BE), Association Professionnelle Européenne du Logiciel Libre (BE), NixOS Foundation (NL), Tolerant Networks (IE), Radically Open Security (NL), HAN University of Applied Sciences (NL), Association for Progressive Communications (ES), Center for the Cultivation of Technology (DE) and Commons Caretakers BV (NL). 

Additional funding for the Swiss partners (Free Silicon Foundation and Internet Society Switzerland chapter) is made available by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). An overview of earlier and ongoing programmes such as NGI0 Entrust and NGI0 Core can be found on https://nlnet.nl/NGI0.

The web page of the NGI0 commons fund, where information about applying for funding and more is on https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund/ 

Acknowledgement

NGI0 Commons Fund is made possible with financial support from the European Commission‘s Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101135429. For the participation of ISOC-CH, additional funding is made available by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

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