The first part of the NGI Sargasso funding program to promote Transatlantic cooperation on Next Generation Internet technologies and services concluded last Monday, the 25th of November 2024, with the deadline to apply for our Final Open Call 5. Our last funding opportunity closed with 225 submitted applications, 104 of them being submitted. This means that 104 innovators are willing to join us in our mission of shaping an Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach for our generations to come, the highest number of our open call program.

If we analyze the data of the submitted applications, entrepreneurs found our open call especially interesting, since 64 applications came from SMEs and startups, followed by researchers, with 19 projects sent by Universities. The rest of the organizations that submitted their ideas were NGOs, with 10; Research and Technology Organizations, with 7, and Foundations, with 2. Other type of entities submitted the last 2 applications.

Regarding the geographical location, 25 different countries participated in the NGI Sargasso Final Open Call 5. France is the country most concerned about creating an Internet for Humans, with 16 applications. Its neighbor Spain follows it with 10 applications, and The Netherlands and Germany with 9. Italy and Turkey participated with 8 and 7 projects, respectively, followed by Austria and Estonia with 5 each. The rest of the 25 countries sent the remaining applications: Ireland and Slovenia 4; Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden 3; Finland and Slovakia 2, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Noway and Ukraine 1.

In our previous four calls, these numbers were slightly different:

In total, during the five open calls of the NGI Sargasso funding program, we have received 397 submitted applications.

Another difference with our previous calls is that we received 16 applications of teams made by three counterparts, meaning that these projects will be executed by one partner from Europe, together with one from the United States and one more from Canada, instead of just two partners (Europe+US or Europe+Canada), as in our first four calls.

What Comes Next after the NGI Sargasso Open Calls? Our OnCampus Programe for our Innovators, 4YFN 2025, and more!

NGI Sargasso is a funding program part of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative, fostering Europe-US/Canada tech innovation with a budget of €4.8M funding, distributed to Internet innovators through five open calls. But what comes after we close all our open calls?

After being carefully reviewed by external evaluators, NGI Sargasso selected innovators can get the following benefits:

  • Secure up to €100,000 equity-free funding.
  • Access to an up to 9-month OnCampus Programe with e-lessons and inspirational talks from industry experts, and services from top mentors and coches who guide them during the whole program duration.
  • Invitation to join a +3,000 members community of the NGI Initiative.

NGI Sargasso will now focus on delivering the OnCampus Programe, facilitating cross-collaboration, focusing on business, rewarding excellence and showcasing achievements. Although the Open Call 1 beneficiaries have already finished their programe, the ones from Open Call 2 and 3 are still enjoying it, and the ones from the Open Call 4 and Open Call 5 are about to start it.

That is why in 2025 we will focus on mentoring and coaching the NGI Sargasso Innovators, also offering them internationalization services by attending global events such as the 4YFN 2025, the startup side event of Mobile World Congress 2025, celebrated in the Spanish city of Barcelona from the 3rd to the 6th of March. Our beneficiaries will join us in this international event and will have the opportunity to participate as speakers in a panel on the 4th of March, bringing the NGI Sargasso Transatlantic wave this time to the Mediterranean Sea. Will we see you there? Follow us on LinkedInXMastodon and BlueSky to discover more, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter!