The NGI Sargasso team gathered at the NGI Forum 2023 celebrated in Brussels on the 15th and 16th of November to meet Europe’s top Internet innovators at work to build an Internet of Trust, empowering end-users with more choice and control over their data and digital identity.
We networked with many relevant stakeholders of the Next Generation Internet ecosystem at the flagship hybrid event of the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative. We discussed strategic actions to attract the best technological talent of the European Union with Monique Calisti, CEO at Martel Innovate and NGI Coordinator, and Thomas Wilczek, Senior Project Manager of NGI projects at FundingBox. We also spoke with them about how to drive innovation forward boosting cross Atlantic collaboration for a more human-centered Internet, one of the key objectives of NGI Sargasso, and we meet our Project Officer at the European Commission, Stergios Tsiafoulis.
Networking with innovators and open source lovers to create an Internet for humans
Since we have two open calls running, our Second Open Call to distribute up to €100,000 equity-free funding for Internet innovators and open source lovers, and the Open Call for Evaluators, we networked with potential applicants coming from across Europe, while we got inspired by hearing many amazing success stories from the NGI initiative. One of them was the case of our innovator Alex Grech, Executive Director at the University of Malta and NGI Sargasso Open Call 1 beneficiary with the project EBSI-CAN: ‘EBSI and verifiable credentialing in Canada’.
Grech participated as a moderator at “PLENARY 2: Shaping Digital Identity and Credentials in the Web 4.0 Era: Empowering and Safeguarding Individuals in the Online World”, a panel that explored whether – and how – three European Commission’s flagship initiatives, the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Regulation, reinforced by the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), and the Next Generation Internet (NGI), could steer technological developments towards social and environmental good, ensuring that digital identity solutions empower and protect users in the EU and across the globe, leading to a safer, more connected, and sustainable world for all. We had the chance to interview him to discover more about his EBSI-CAN project.
Our partners from AUSTRALO, Raquel Carro and Sara Abu, were interviewed by two students of the University of Aarhus, Simone Rosendal and Katrine Albaek, about the importance of communication and dissemination for the NGI initiative, including the challenges that we face.
More about the NGI Forum 2023
The NGI Forum 2023 is designed as a dynamic hub for visionary thinkers, policymakers, and technologists to delve into the forefront of Europe’s digital transformation. At its core, the forum places the spotlight on the concept of the Digital Commons, which is particularly crucial for Europe, as it fosters equitable access to information, fuels innovation, and bolsters digital sovereignty.
In a multifaceted agenda that spans European policy developments, innovation trends, and NGI activities, the NGI Forum 2023 explores a diverse array of topics to underpin the transition to the future Internet. The discussions expand to digital identity, quantum internet, large language models and web search, decentralised social media and security of the open source supply chain.