NGI Sargasso closed yesterday, the 18th of December at 17:00 CET, its second open call looking for startups, SMEs, Universities and research centres, and NGOs and foundations to redesign the Internet of the future with a total of 168 open applications, 79 of those in submitted status, coming from 21 Europe and its Associated Countries, besides the US and Canada.
Spain is the first in the list of countries that have participated in submitting proposals to create an Internet of trust with a human-centric approach, with 11 submissions, followed by Italy and France with 10; Belgium with 6; Germany and Romania with 5; Estonia, Ireland, and The Netherlands with 4; Greece and North Macedonia with 3; Austria, Finland, Poland and Turkey with 2; and Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Luxembourg and Slovenia with 1.
Regarding the type of organizations that have submitted applications, 47 are coming from startups/SMEs; 18 from Universities and 4 from research centres; 7 from NGOs and 2 from foundations; and 1 more is coming from other type of entities.
Internet innovators applied to address one or more of the following ten challenges:
- Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Across Continents.
- Harmonized Cross-Atlantic Digital Governance.
- Inclusive Public Digital Spaces for Global Community Engagement.
- Enhanced Data Security and Privacy in Transcontinental Perspective.
- Interoperability and Standardization Across Borders.
- Global Implementation of Decentralized Technologies.
- Next-Gen Cybersecurity and Generative AI.
- Quantum-Resistant Security Systems.
- Redefining Intelligence in a Hyperconnected World.
- Open Challenge for Next Generation Internet.
The winners of the NGI Sargasso second open call will be announced in January 2024, after external experts carefully evaluate each proposal.
Three more open calls to distribute up to €100,000 equity-free funding per selected project
After closing the first and second open calls, we will launch three more open calls, the next one in Spring 2024, with the novelty of accepting applications from the UK.
Benefits for selected projects include:
- Securing a lump sum of up to €100,000 equity-free funding per proposal.
- Entering an up to 9-month Capacity-Building program with several lectures, inspirational talks and activities.
- Getting coaching and mentoring services from top experts.
- Joining the NGI – The Next Generation Internet Community with over 3,000 innovators.
We encourage you to have a look at the page for EU applicants and the page for US and Canada applicants. We will make public the page for UK applicants in 2024. Stay tuned and join us to reshape the Internet of the future!