Three months ago, we closed our Open Call 5, the last of the NGI Sargasso cascade funding program. It was the 25th of November 2024 when 104 Transatlantic teams submitted their ideas for our call, which meant that 104 innovators were willing to join us in our mission of shaping an Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach for our generations to come.

After being reviewed by external evaluators, 13 teams that submitted their ideas on the 25th of November started today their NGI Sargasso OnCampus Program to kick-off their projects to build the Next Generation Internet. Keep reading the article to discover them!

Welcome to your Next Generation Internet Transatlantic journey!

1. AAA: 3A – Authenticated Anonymity Architecture

The 3A – Authenticated Anonymity Architecture project (AAA) aims to provide a decentralized architecture to defend the right of lawful individuals to be anonymous online, while also protecting society from criminals exploiting anonymity to carry out illegal deeds undisturbed.

Implementation and deployment of a blockchain-based software architecture for ethical, robust, and authenticated anonymity. This enables the creation, management, and distribution of authenticated anonymous accounts for Internet use, with mappings between real identities and anonymous accounts stored in the blockchain, resolvable only when multiple legal jurisdictions agree on misuse. This team aims to perform a large-scale performance analysis and present a concrete testbed to public administrations.

2. ARC: Cancer Patient Application Powered by Generative AI (starting with CRC)

Arcella’s AI-powered Cancer Patient App is a cutting-edge medical device that empowers patients and healthcare providers with personalized insights, real-time data analysis, clinical trial matching, and health tracking, supporting informed decisions and enhancing personalized, holistic cancer care.

ARC focus is the development of an advanced, interactive Cancer Patient App — a state-of-the-art Medical Device powered by Gen- AI. This app is designed to empower both patients and healthcare providers, delivering personalized insights and enhancing care through real-time data analysis. By integrating tailored info, clinical trial matching, and health tracking features, they aim to support informed decision-making, foster patient engagement, and provide holistic care tailored to each patient’s journey.

3. ArcFusion: Agentic AI Analytics and Global Shopfloor Connectivity

Bridging the gap with precision and agentic AI, empowering SMEs to tier-1manufacturers with seamless AI analytics and real-time MES integration.

ArcFusion combines precision AI, agentic AI, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to empower Tier 1-3 manufacturers and SMEs with advanced shopfloor analytics. It enhances global operational efficiency, unlocks market opportunities, and delivers automation, user empowerment, and scalable AI access for non-technical users, driving faster time-to-market and improved productivity. Integration of agentic and precision AI supports next-gen shopfloor AI systems, moving beyond state of the art.

4. COAT: Comprehensive Online Agreement Transparency (COAT) Toolkit

COAT Toolkit is a toolkit for empowering data education of online users with clear and understandable explanations of complex online agreements, to ensure data privacy and promote accountability.

COAT (Comprehensive Online Agreement Transparency) toolkit is designed to interpret and simplify complex online agreements. It is an AI-based system that leverages models such as Natural Language Processing to analyze dense legal documents about privacy policies, translating them into user-friendly concepts and ranking by a privacy risk score. COAT manages users’ accepted agreements, notifies them of privacy policy updates, and promotes online transparency, awareness, and accountability.

5. COBOTPLANET: Connected Robotics Platform for Autonomous Networks

This project will develop an innovative platform for the management and orchestration of autonomous 5G networks comprising intelligent connected robots for sensing and connectivity.

COBOTPLANET will develop a first-of-its-kind platform for the management and orchestration of 5G wireless networks comprising intelligent nodes (i.e. robots). In general, two main challenges in this project will be addressed: the management of the robots in the network to assist the network with sensing and connectivity services offered to the users, and network management for serving robots as terminal users for reliable robot-to-infrastructure connection in mission-critical scenarios.

6. DecentraLabs: Decentralized Online Laboratories for Education and Research

Making online labs sustainable through the application of decentralized technologies.

Online labs (OLs) may be used for both research and education, by anyone, from anywhere. In principle, this supports all type of experimentation activities in the contexts of Open Science and Open Education. In practice, however, extremely few lab devices are shared for either purpose due to several limiting factors. This project proposes applying decentralized technologies to overcome all these limitations and create a business case for sharing OLs across institutions and keep them operative.

7. DeepShield: Transatlantic Cooperation for Fighting Deepfakes Online

Bridging transatlantic expertise, Truebees and Purdue University (VIPER) collaborate to advance deepfake detection, transforming cutting-edge research into market-ready solutions and ensuring compliance with deepfake regulations on both sides of the Atlantic.

This project creates a new connection between Truebees and Purdue University (VIPER) to cooperate by merging AI-based deepfake detection in challenging real world case settings with advanced media authentication methods. Their goal is to ensure that users and media companies can confidently share trustworthy content and have verifiable proof of its authenticity. This collaboration leverages top-tier research and innovation to set a new Transatlantic standard in digital media integrity.

8. DPDB: Towards a Standard Interface for Differential Privacy Systems with Database Interoperability

Establishing a cross-compatible, privacy-preserving approach for differential privacy systems interfacing with diverse database engines.

Many current differential privacy solutions either rely on proprietary data engines, limited processing capabilities, or support only specific database environments, restricting scalability and flexibility. This project proposes a standardized approach to link DP frameworks that handle privacy-preserving noise injection with robust, scalable database engines, supporting large-scale data analytics across platforms and enhancing interoperability in privacy-focused data sharing.

9. FUSION: Facilities Using Sustainable Integrated Operations Network

FUSION is a project creating a new embedded IoT platform that can handle the interconnection of different smart devices/services and other services provided by existing facility service companies along with the new services from the integration of a SaaS AI/ML tool for the HVAC/lighting systems.

Residential digitalization is a major issue. FUSION aim is to create a sustainable digital infrastructure of an IoT platform connecting present different building facilities services and a new Building Energy Management system (c-BEMS) tool on HVAC/lighting (presently each operates in its own IoT platform) towards expansion of these services and confronting challenges such as energy efficiency, sustainable cities and climate change.

10. G-SIGN – IP: Global Smart InterGovernment Network (for Secure Data Exchange): Piloting for Intellectual Property Services

G-SIGN – IP aims to create a secure, reliable global network (G-SIGN) using blockchain and AI for authentication, authorization, and data exchange, with pilot use case on intellectual property (IP), enabling resilient, decentralized, and secure cross-border data exchange between Turkey and the USA.

G-SIGN-IP will use blockchain and AI to create a secure cross-border network for authentication, authorization, and information sharing. The platform will manage sensitive data between Turkey and the USA, integrating Bluetooth and Wi-Fi through blockchain-based interactions and e-government services. With expertise from Turksat and Pathways toRight-Of-Ways, the pilot case will focus on demonstrating secure IP services, promoting trust in digital transactions, supporting NGI Sargasso’s vision.

11. GreenTwin: A Digital Twin Solution for Emission Sustainability in Agriculture

GreenTwin explores greenhouse gas emissions from crops, such as those caused by fertilizer use or waste burning, using a Digital Twin approach. By combining chemistry transport models, hyperlocal IoT data, and Data Spaces, it creates a virtual representation to drive better practices and decisions.

The agricultural sector significantly contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet its full impact remains unclear. This project uses a Digital Twin—a virtual model replicating real-world agricultural systems—to estimate emissions like methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3) from practices such as fertilizer use and waste burning. By integrating advanced models, IoT data, and Data Spaces, it helps farmers and policymakers implement sustainable strategies and make informed decisions.

12. OCB: Open Commerce in a Blox

Open Commerce in a Blox enables any company to participate in an open commerce network based on the Beckn protocol by deploying a compatible marketplace in a few clicks.

Beckn protocol runs 14M monthly transactions in India, mostly transport. However, there is no ready-made marketplace one can deploy to start retailing products from a Beck network. Open-source marketplaces in the Beckn ecosystem are using deprecated versions of the protocol, are also not documented enough and are strongly coupled with services that only work in India. Open Commerce in a Blox is a light and open source marketplace that is compatible with the latest version of the Beckn protocol.

13. WikiDIDs: Decentralized Identifiers for Wikipedia and other ‘Commons’ Initiatives

WikiDIDs is a set of schemas, services and tools allowing contributors to Wikipedia and other ‘commons’ initiatives to achieve democratic and traceable rule-based publishing by using the Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) W3C standard.

This project enacts a novel Decentralized Autonomous Publishing Organization model integrating Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs) for academic publishing. Leveraging smart contracts, IPFS, and DID-based authentication, it addresses centralization, inefficiency, and transparency issues. The solution enables democratic, scientific quality, traceable, trusted knowledge management, fostering a decentralized ‘Wikipedia of facts’ based on EU/USA standards including eIDAS2.