NGI Sargasso Joins NGI Search in their Mission to Fund the Next Generation of Web Searching Tools

The Next Generation Internet projects NGI Sargasso and NGI Search have signed an agreement (Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU) to formally join forces and support each other's aspiration to shape a more human-centric Internet for our future generations.

NGI Search aims to fund open source projects in the area of Next Generation Internet Search, Discovery and Indexing with focus on European values. Specifically this means open source alternatives that are privacy preserving and trustworthy and contribute to the evolution of the Internet according to a human-centric approach of the Internet commons. This mission is aligned NGI Sargasso's ambition to create a unique collaborative ecosystem to harvest EU-US and/or EU-Canada technology breakthroughs to revolutionize the Next Generation Internet technologies, services and standards, and contribute to the evolution of the Internet also according to a human-centric approach of the Internet commons.

This agreement is based on collaborating on joint actions and cross-dissemination activities to strengthen the Next Generation Internet ecosystem in Europe and beyond, and was born in the Open Search Symposium 2024 (OSSYM24), where our partners Sara Abu and Laura Argilés from AUSTRALO met the NGI Search Coordinator Mirko Presser from the Aarhus University, as you can see in the picture below.

NGI Sargasso is also collaborating with StandICT.eu, FORGING, and CrabNebula through MoUs.

About NGI Search: The Next Generation Internet Search Incubator

The NGI Search project is a European project designed to support entrepreneurs, tech-geeks, developers, and socially engaged people, who are capable of challenging the way we search and discover information and resources on the internet.

This is a difficult, yet very important field of research, development and innovation, as today, users of the internet are mostly relying on services provided by non-transparent organizations potentially violating privacy and trust.

With five European partners contributing to the project, NGI Search launched five open calls for innovative projects, whereby selected applicants benefitted from the financial support of up to 150,000€ as well as technical, business and innovation support over 12 months, to develop solutions that change the way we use and experience, search and discover data and resources in general on the internet and on the web. This includes:

  • A new voice and image-based user interfaces for searching and representing data.
  • Heterogeneous data sources include IoT, semantic data, multimedia, social media and traditional websites.
  • New Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) methodologies in a generic context.
  • Specific use cases such as industry 4.0, health, social media, etc.

The NGI Search consortium is coordinated by Aarhus University, and partnered by FundingBox, The University of Murcia, Linknovate Science, and OW2.

About the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative

The Next Generation Internet (NGI) is a European Commission (EC) initiative that aims to shape the development and evolution of the Internet into an Internet of Trust. An Internet that responds to people’s fundamental needs, including trust, security, and inclusion, while reflecting the values and the norms all citizens enjoy in Europe.

After an initial EC investment in NGI research and innovation of more than €250M (2018-2020) that supported more than 1,000 Internet researchers and innovators involved in hundreds of projects, the EC announced renewed EU funding for NGI under Horizon Europe. Horizon Europe Calls related to the Next Generation Internet, of relevance to the NGI community are listed under Pillar II, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Cluster 4, Digital, Industry and Space. This funding goes beyond financing: it includes mentoring and supports the innovators’ journey from an idea to a real business.

https://youtu.be/Jpi338SyKLY?feature=shared


NGI Sargasso at MWC - 4YFN 2025: A Panel and Pitching Session with our Innovators to Bridge Continents on Next Generation Internet

One more year we are happy to announce that NGI Sargasso will attend 4YFN 2025, the startup side event of Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona, with an agenda full of activities, especially in the morning of the second day of the event, on Tuesday the 4th of March starting at 11:15h. Keep reading to discover them, and save this location in Fira Barcelona: Hall 8.1 - Stand 8.1.B.55!

The NGI Sargasso Panel at 4YFN 2025

We have gathered some of our innovators and stakeholders from the Next Generation Internet (NGI) community in a panel titled "Next-Generation Internet: Bridging Continents, Innovating Together". The panel will start at 11:15h on Tuesday, the 4th of March, in the Hall 8.1 - Stand 8.1.B.55, and four of our beneficiaries will explain how they are shaping transatlantic collaboration on NGI technologies and services.

SPEAKERS

  • Moderator: Emmanouil Detsis, NGI Sargasso Project Coordinator - ESF Foundation.
  • Keynote speaker: Stergios Tsiafoulis, NGI Sargasso Project Officer - European Commission.
  • NGI Sargasso Innovators:
    • Yuting Jiang, CEO at Agora / ZKorum - Project: Agora / EeDP - Empowering eDemocracy for Peace (Open Call 3).
    • Alex Bourlier, Co-Founder at Startin’blox - Project: RSFA - Rosseta Stone for APIs (Open Call 2).
    • Christos N. Stefanatos, Project Lead at EV Loader / Parity Platform PC - Project: EVI US Pilot - Electric Vehicle Identity US Pilot (Open Call 3).
    • Erik Hieta-Aho, Senior Scientist at VTT - Project: HPQCSSI - Hybrid Post-Quantum Cryptography Self-Sovereign Identity Stack (Open Call 2).
  • Closing speaker: Monique Callisti, NGI Outreach Office - Martel Innovate

AGENDA

  • 11:15h - 11:20h → Opening keynote by Project Officer.
  • 11:20h - 11:25h → Brief project tagline by each NGI Sargasso Innovator on stage.
  • 11:25h - 11:45h → Open debate.
  • 11:45h - 11:50h → Q&A.
  • 11:50h - 11:55h → An brief intro into the NGI initiative.
  • 11:55h - 12:00 → Coordinator closing and opening of the following pitching session.

The NGI Sargasso Pitching Session at 4YFN 2025

Right after the NGI Sargasso panel at 4YFN 2025, we will start the second part of our session at 12:00h in the same location, in the Hall 8.1 - Stand 8.1.B.55: "NGI Sargasso Showcase: Pioneering Innovations for Europe’s Digital Future", a one-hour pitch session and Q&A featuring some of the NGI Sargasso projects.

NGI Sargasso is proud to present some of the most outstanding projects funded during the course of our program. This dynamic one-hour session offers a platform for our beneficiaries to pitch their transformative ideas and share insights into the next-generation internet landscape. Each innovator will have the opportunity to walk the audience through their objectives, methods and achievements.

 SPEAKERS

  • Moderator: Emmanouil Detsis, NGI Sargasso Project Coordinator - ESF Foundation.
  • NGI Sargasso Innovators:
    • Yuting Jiang, CEO at Agora / ZKorum - Project: Agora / EeDP - Empowering eDemocracy for Peace (Open Call 3).
    • Alex Bourlier, Co-Founder at Startin’blox - Project: RSFA - Rosseta Stone for APIs (Open Call 2).
    • Christos N. Stefanatos, Project Lead at EV Loader / Parity Platform PC - Project: EVI US Pilot - Electric Vehicle Identity US Pilot (Open Call 3).
    • Erik Hieta-Aho, Senior Scientist at VTT - Project: HPQCSSI - Hybrid Post-Quantum Cryptography Self-Sovereign Identity Stack (Open Call 2).
    • Jordi Mongay Batalla, Professor at Warsaw University of Technology - Project: EvORAN - Evaluation of Open RAN Network Equipment including Underlying (Open Call 1).
    • Ángel Hernando Veciana, Full Professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - Project: GMM - A Global Market Maker for Decentralized Token Exchanges (Open Call 3).
    • Julien Bringer, CEO at Kallistech SAS - Project: D3ICA - Democratizing Decentralized Digital Identity through Cloud Agents (Open Call 1).
    • Giovanni Pettorru, PhD Student at University of Cagliari - Project: POSIDONIA - POSition Information with Digital Twin Offloading in Trustworthy Next-Generation Internet Applications (Open Call 3).
    • Fernando José Gómez Gil, Co-Founder at Training Experience - Project: VeriRecruit - AI-Driven Interview Analysis for Precision Hiring (Open Call 2).

AGENDA

  • 12:00h - 12:05h → Pitching Session intro by Emmanuoil Detsis as continuation of the previous panel.
  • 12:05h - 12:25h → NGI Sargasso Innovators Pitches.
  • 12:25h - 12:45h → Q&A, closing and networking catering.

All the NGI Sargasso Innovators will also be during the four days (3-6 March) of 4YFN / MWC 2025 in the NGI Sargasso startup pods from 8.1 B63.4 to 8.1 B63.8 ready to network and connect with you!

More about 4YFN and Mobile World Congress Barcelona

4YFN is the event partner of MWC Barcelona, the world’s largest and most influential connectivity event, bringing together the latest innovations and leading-edge technology alongside today’s most influential visionaries in Barcelona from the 3rd to the 6th of March 2025.

This means this congress not only brings all the players you need for a winning digital startup together (like investors and corporate innovators), but it also springboards startups onto the radar of the most powerful decision makers in the connectivity ecosystem – such as CEOs from global mobile operators and frontier tech companies.

All this helps new business ventures sprout the wings they need for a breathtaking launch.

Have a look at what we did last year at 4YFN 2024, and see you soon in Barcelona to create an Internet of Humans together!

https://youtu.be/kjjH9cp-3lc?feature=shared


The NGI Sargasso Innovators Startin'Blox and Werenode Included in the Top 26 Web 3.0 Companies and Startups in France

Two NGI Sargasso innovators, Startin'Blox and Werenode, have been included in the list of the "26 top Web 3.0 companies and startups in France in January 2025", powered by the F6S Community.

The French Internet game-changers applied to the NGI Sargasso Open Call 2 and Open Call 3, respectively, and were selected to join our Transatlantic journey to shape a more human-centric Internet.

Startin'Blox: An App Builder for Data Spaces

Startin'Blox, founded in 2018 by Alex Bourlier, and based in Paris, is an app builder for data spaces. They help the ecosystem of companies to share data in a sovereign way by providing them with apps that matches their data sharing needs.

They submitted the project Rosetta Stone for APIs (RSFA) together with Open Food Network Canada. Within EU data spaces, in American agriculture and through the Indian Stack, there is fast growing demand for interoperability based on the same global technical standards. In these 3 continents, there is explicit demand for a Rosetta Stone for APIs, as organizations need to make their existing APIs interoperable with their partners. In this project, the NGI Sargasso innovators are developing an open source solution that easily transforms an API from its current form to one that is compliant with the ontology of its industry.

https://youtube.com/shorts/AVvlkB1l_bQ?feature=shared

Werenode: Boosting EV Charging Network with Web3.0 Technologies

Werenode leverages Web3.0 technologies to create a decentralized digital ecosystem that supports the sharing of EV charging stations, low-cost infrastructure deployment, advanced services like smart charging and user group management, and decentralized energy communities. It was also founded in 2018 in Paris, and its CEO is Benoît Maïsseu.

This French company applied to our Open Call 3 with their project Internet Of Things automatic PAYment solution (IOTPAY), partnered by GAPASK Inc (Canada). IOTPAY is dedicated to developing a robust, interoperable decentralized payment ecosystem specifically designed for IoT devices. By harnessing blockchain technology, IOTPAY significantly reduces fraud and errors while boosting operational efficiency. This innovative platform ensures seamless, secure and automatic transactions between connected devices, paving the way for a smarter, more reliable digital economy.

https://youtu.be/60uzgS7ynm0?feature=shared

Startin'Blox and Werenode, congratulations for this achievement! 


Meet the 12 NGI Sargasso Innovators from our Open Call 4 Building Transatlantic Bridges for the Future of the Internet

New year, new projects, new NGI Sargasso Innovators!

Today is an important date in our calendar: we host the Welcome Session for the new 12 NGI Sargasso beneficiaries selected in our Open Call 4.

Back in the Summer, on the 1st of August at 17:00 CEST (10:00 CDT), we closed our Open Call 4 with 75 submitted projects to join us in our mission of creating the Next Generation Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach. External evaluators reviewed each of the applications, to finally select 12, that we invite you to discover in this article.

Today, these 12 teams start their Transatlantic journey with NGI Sargasso, materialized through our OnCampus Program, designed to incubate technological projects and foster a network of innovation professionals. The NGI Sargasso OnCampus includes several benefits, such as up to €100,000 equity-free funding, mentoring and coaching services, e-lessons and inspirational talks from industry and business experts, and access to international events.

Also, becoming an NGI Sargasso Innovator means becoming a member of the NGI - The Next Generation Internet Community.

Welcome aboard, NGI Sargasso Open Call 4 Innovators! Are you ready to start your Next Generation Internet Transatlantic journey?

1. Decoy-Auth: Zero-Knowledge Authentication with Compromise Detection

DecoyAuth will research, develop, and standardize an innovative zero-knowledge authentication protocol that supports decoy tokens. The decoy tokens act like a reverse honeypot, where usage of a stolen or leaked token indicates a security breach, triggering appropriate security measures.

Modern zero-knowledge authentication protocols, such as Dragonfly, only successfully complete when using the correct (unique) authentication token. Decoy-Auth will extend Dragonfly to support multiple authentication tokens, enabling authentication using different tokens, including a decoy token. The decoy token acts as a reverse honeypot: its usage indicates a security breach. Their protocol is inspired by industry demand and will be openly designed, developed and standardized to ensure interoperability.

2. MC-DIW: Micro-Credentials and Digital Identity Wallets

Micro-Credentials and Digital Identity Wallets (MC-DIW) is a research project that explores the BC Wallet and EUDIW to develop an interoperable micro-credential system between the EU and Canada to enhance lifelong learning and higher education and fostering international collaboration.

Their previous project EBSI-CAN (NGI Sargasso Innovator from our Open Call 1) recommended focusing on a EUROPEUM digital credentialing pilot in British Columbia's education sector. MC-DIW leverages on recommendation 1 of EBSI-CAN to examine the feasibility of an interoperable micro-credential system using BC Wallet and the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) to bridge the gap between Canadian and European digital identity solutions and trust models while monitoring business and technical developments with the EUROPEUM EDIC.

3. SeEDS:  Secure and Efficient Data Spaces

The SeEDS project will implement a flexible, efficient and secure data space over the NDN architecture, offering self-sovereign, trustworthy, and privacy-preserving data sharing, while taking advantage of the advanced communication paradigms offered by the underlay NDN network.

The SeEDS project will implement an ETSI compliant data space over the Named-Data Networking (NDN) ICN architecture. SeEDS will exploit the advanced capabilities of NDN to implement flexible and efficient data management and discovery, subscriptions to data events, as well as temporal data queries. At the same time, it will provide a trust management framework that will support in-network security and privacy operations, including data integrity verification and selective content revelation.

4. FRQGAN4AD: Federated and Robust Quantum Generative Adversarial Networks for Anomaly Detection in Future Internet

The project is devoted to exploiting Quantum Generative AI to improve anomaly detection when analyzing traffic traces to identify attacks in the Next-Generation Internet and devise a federated and robust approach to cope with the quantum noise and the large scale of the network under analysis.

Monitoring the network behavior for intrusion detection is needed to find anomalies in what is assumed as “normal” behavior and detect possible attacks. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have successfully detected such anomalies but also suffer from high false alarm rates. These innovators aim to investigate how quantum computing can improve GAN and how to have a federated approach to QGAN in large networks that have a wide variety of traffic and are susceptible to a large number of potential attacks.

5. SmartBreath: AI Based SmartBreath Cloud

A comprehensive respiratory care platform to prevent respiratory complications in both hospital settings and at the point of care. The AI-based SmartBreath Cloud aims to enhance patient outcomes by leveraging real-time respiratory and pulmonary data collected through incentive spirometers.

Respiratory complications such as pneumonia lead to hospitalization, extended stays, higher readmission rates, morbidity, and mortality. Standard therapy uses an incentive spirometer (IS) to expand the lungs and reduce fluid buildup. However, patient compliance with IS is low, a crucial factor for successful outcomes. Furthermore, respiratory and pulmonary data are often siloed, limiting the ability to derive actionable insights and improve patient care across clinical settings.

6. DIDroom Uni Credentials: DIDroom for University Transatlantic Credential

Full identity and credential solution (dashboard, wallet and verifier app, microservices) for interoperable university credentials, interoperable between EU and Canada, supporting W3C-DID, W3C-VC, EUDI-ARF and BBS, built based on DIDroom and universities' requirements.

The solution developed by this project extends DIDroom to build a use case for digital identity and credentials that is interoperable for universities in Canada/USA and Europe. This Transatlantic team will build the use case based on input from the University of British Columbia, and partners in Europe and Norway, including a list of features, the specs for integration and interoperability, and the user base, to adapt the DIDroom solution accordingly.

7. MDIP: Medications Data Interoperability Project

The Medications Data Interoperability Project (MDIP) intends to provide a 'single source of truth' for medications data internationally by using a future-proof data architecture incorporating AI, ontologies and blockchain, enriched by pharmacogenomic data, to improve patient safety globally.

Medications data is vital to patient safety and public health costs reduction yet few countries have comprehensive open access databases at reasonable cost. MDIP will show the relative simplicity and low cost of linking related medications across jurisdictions by using new technologies (ontology management using AI and blockchain for provenance). This NGI Sargasso project will create an open access website that links official medications data across EU, Canada and UK with pharmacogenomic (PGx) “flags”.

8. QRISTIN: Quantum Routines In Space-Terrestrial Integrated Networks

The QRISTIN project seeks to harness the power of quantum algorithms to tackle intricate combinatorial optimization problems within space terrestrial integrated networks (STINs), specifically focusing on improving resource management and routing strategies.

The QRISTIN project leverages quantum algorithms to address complex combinatorial optimization challenges within STIN. While STIN offers inherent advantages like flexibility and larger bandwidth over terrestrial networks, integrating satellite networks efficiently poses challenges, particularly in developing algorithms for resource management and routing strategies. Quantum computing's ability to solve hard computational problems complements classical solutions, making it a promising choice.

9. DIDSSI: Blockchain-based Decentralized and Self-Sovereign Identities

The project aims to develop a blockchain-based decentralized identity protocol that will enable support for self-sovereign identities. In such a system, individuals have complete control over their personal information and over the information they share to prove their identities/credentials.

The project builds the foundation of a trusted blockchain-based distributed system for decentralized identities (DIDs) and self-sovereign identities (SSIs), initially focused on Europe-USA student exchange programs. By attracting more universities and students in mobility exchanges, it will generate a positive economic and social impact. The core of the system relies on a series of smart contracts that provide trust services and manage the registries needed for the system operation.

10. CADP: Cooperative Agri-Data Portal / Portail Coopératif des Données Agricoles

The ‘Cooperative Agri-Data Portal’ (CADP) enables seamless, secure, decentralized data sharing and interoperability in agrifood short supply chains using open semantic standards and Solid-OIDC authentication, providing real-time aggregated data and analytics for farms, hubs, and logistics players.

The ‘Cooperative Agri-Data Portal’ (CADP), is designed to catalyze interoperability in agrifood short supply chains, by enabling farms and hubs to seamlessly share and federate data. It uses open semantic standards and Solid-OIDC authentication to provide a secure, decentralized data sharing infrastructure that aggregates supply chain data from diverse agrifood platforms in real time, providing food hubs, farms, and logistics players with dynamic decentralized procurement and analytics tools.

11. Taler-OIM: Bridging the Literate Divide in Digital Payments

To attain digital financial inclusion requires modern schooling. Evidence shows that about a billion adults, including many Europeans, cannot read or write numbers longer than 2 digits. GNU Taler with 'OIM inside' will design a usable payment app for this vulnerable population.

Taler Systems SA is developing a new digital payment protocol for privacy-preserving cash-like transactions. Taler's payment system improves usability in digital payments as it avoids the need for the payer to authenticate to third parties. My Oral Village specializes in making financial products accessible for illiterate and innumerate adults using Oral Information Management (OIM). By combining this research, Taler-OIM will create an even more inclusive payment solution.

12. INN: Identity Network of Networks

Interoperable identity: enabling cross-border digital trust.

This project aims at developing a technical blueprint for a "Network of Networks" to enable cross-border interoperability of digital identity while minimizing any central infrastructure and governance.


What will the Next Generation Internet Wave Look Like? Insights from Over 100 NGI Sargasso Open Call 5 Applicants

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 started 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!


NGI Sargasso Newsletter - October 2024: Last Call for Internet Innovators to Join our Final up to €100K Equity-Free Funding Transatlantic Program

Can you believe we already launched the last of our five NGI Sargasso open calls?

In September, the back at school meant for us back at our open calls. In fact, on the 23rd, we launched our Final Open Call 5 that will be accepting applications until the 25th of November 2024. As in our previous open calls, we’re pumped to invite innovators from the European Union, United States, and Canada to team up and shake up the Next Generation Internet!

As usual, we offer two info webinars and matchmaking sessions per call, the second and last happening tomorrow at 16:00 CET / 10:00 CDT, and we kindly invite you to join it. Why?

Because during the session, you will discover how to get up to €100,000 equity-free funding to create an Internet of Trust and find potential partners across the Atlantic.

Besides, the NGI Sargasso team will provide you with:

  1. All the information you need to know to submit a successful application: requirements, applications process, selection criteria, calendar, etc.
  2. The opportunity to meet two of our NGI Sargasso Innovators selected in our previous open calls, to ask them all your questions: Raúl Reinosa Simón from GUARDIAN (Open Call 2) and George Xylomenos from SNDS (Open Call 1).
  3. A dynamic matchmaking session in different virtual rooms to help you find your Transatlantic partner -we only accept team applications EU+US, EU+CA or EU+US+CA.

Don't miss it, and:

At NGI Sargasso we aim to create a space where EU-US, EU-Canada or EU-US-Canada tech breakthroughs can come together by changing the game regarding Next Generation Internet technologies, services, and standards, all while keeping things human-centric on topics such as trust and data sovereignty, digital identity, internet architecture renovation, decentralized technologies, and standards.

So, what’s in it for you if you get picked? Loads of good stuff:

  • Up to €100,000 in funding, no strings attached -for this final call, the total budget available is up to €1.200.000.
  • Mentoring and coaching to help you level up.
  • An up to 9-month Capacity-Building Program to dive deep, but you can choose if you prefer 3 or 6 months, instead of 9.
  • Access to a whole community of NGI - The Next Generation Internet innovators.
  • Matchmaking activities to find your partner or partners across the Atlantic.

This is your last opportunity to innovate across borders and bring your idea to life, since NGI Sargasso won’t launch any more calls! Don’t let it slip away, and:

Also, in case you feel curiosity about the results of our previous Open Call 4, closed last August 2024, 75 game-changers proved that they felt ready to build the next generation Internet for humans, applying from 22 different countries.

Discover our Open Call 3 Innovators

It was the 15th of May 2024 when the NGI Sargasso project closed its Open Call 3 with 73 submitted proposals of Transatlantic teams willing to create a more human-centric Internet for our future generations.

Each one of the submitted applications were carefully reviewed by external evaluators to finally select 11 of them who joined the NGI Sargasso Innovators Portfolio. They started their Transatlantic journey onboarding the NGI Sargasso OnCampus Program on the 5th of September 2024 to enjoy the NGI Sargasso funding program benefits. Meet them:

  1. EeDPEmpowering eDemocracy for Peace, partnered by Yuting Jiang from Agora by ZKorum, and Brianna Cook from IoTeeDom.
  2. FVCPFacilitate Verifiable Credentials Presentation Across Borders, partnered by Julien Bringer from Kallistech, and Kaliya Hamlin from Identity Works, LLC.
  3. SafeModeEmpowering Commercial Drivers: Harnessing Next Generation Internet to Enhance Safety, Trust, and Environmental Sustainability, partnered by Ido Levy from SafeMode, and David Still from Innovative Captive Strategies.
  4. NG Docu VaultNext Generation Docu Vault, partnered by Sarra-Maryam Fezzani from HORA e.V., and Karim L. F. from Fezzani Muszynski Société d'avocats / Juris Canada Droit de l'immigration.
  5. LeLinkLeLink, partnered by Sarra-Maryam Fezzani from HORA e.V., and Karim L. F. from Fezzani Muszynski Société d'avocats / Juris Canada Droit de l'immigration.
  6. GALICIAGenerative AI with Cybersecurity for Internet Applications Development, partnered by Christian Violi from Novareckon, and Jérémie Farret from Mind in a Box.
  7. EVI US PilotElectric Vehicle Identity US Pilot, partnered by Christos Stefanatos from EV Loader, and Hadji Dimitri from Mega Contracting Group.
  8. TruPSEnhancing Trusted Transatlantic Data Processing and Storage with Fully Homomorphic Encryption, partnered by Kruno Milicevic from Random Red Ltd., and Diogo Oliveira from Pennsylvania State University – Beaver Campus.
  9. GMMA Global Market Maker for Decentralized Token Exchanges, partnered by Marcelo Bagnulo Braun from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Francisco Peñaranda from The City University of New York – Queens College.
  10. POSIDONIAPOSition Information with Digital Twin Offloading in Trustworthy Next-Generation Internet Applications, partnered by Marco Martalo’ from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, and Flavio Esposito from Saint Louis University.
  11. IOTPAYInternet of Things Payment System, partnered by Benoît Maïsseu from WERENODE, and Rajesh Murthy from GAPASK Inc.

Discover more about them here.

The NGI Sargasso Inspirational Talks

"Software in the European Regulatory Landscape" was the title of the NGI Sargasso Inspirational Talk offered by Daniel Thompson-Yvetot, NGI influencer, Co-Founder of Tauri and CEO of CrabNebula, and an NGI Sargasso supportive partner, to the NGI Sargasso innovators from the Open Call 1 and Open Call 2, as part of their 9-month OnCampus program activities.

“Is the European regulatory landscape in software protecting the most vulnerable?” was one of the may questions answered during his talk.

NGI Sargasso at the 6th Open Search Symposium (OSSYM 2024)

The Open Search Symposium 2024 (OSSYM24) brought together the Open Web Search community in Europe for the sixth time, and NGI Sargasso attended it to network with the open search ecosystem and other NGI-funded projects: NGI Search and OpenWebSearch.eu.

In this picture, you can see Megi (Maggie) Sharikadze (Head of Research at Leibniz Supercomputing Centre) and Stefan Voigt (Open Search Foundation) from Open Web Search; Sara Abu and Laura Argilés (Project Manager and Marketing Manager at AUSTRALO respectively), representing NGI Sargasso; and Mirko Presser (Associate Professor at Aarhus University) from NGI Search.

Our partner AUSTRALO was there to join the discussions, while getting insights from the ecosystem’s researchers, policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders about Next Generation Internet Transatlantic cooperation.

Meet the NGI Sargasso Ecosystem

NGI Sargasso is happy to announce our Supportive Partner StandICT.eu, an EU-funded project fostering the participation of European experts in international ICT standardization.

We signed a collaboration framed with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), targeting to leverage both projects’ engagements and contributions to international standardization to create an Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach according to the values of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative.

In fact, they are looking for applicants for their their 6th open call to obtain financial support for their activities on ICT standards in several domains, including Virtual Worlds, Digital Product Passport, AI, Blockchain, and more. Hurry up and submit your idea before next Monday the 4th of October!

--

That is all for our seventh wave of NGI Sargasso news, to which we invite you to subscribe here.

Stay tuned for updates, success stories, and the latest developments within the NGI Sargasso project. Together, let's shape the future of the Next Generation Internet!

Check our Privacy Policy here.

This newsletter was originally published on NGI Sargasso LinkedIn.


NGI Sargasso Networks with the Open Internet Search Ecosystem and other NGI Projects at OSSYM24

The Open Search Symposium 2024 (OSSYM24) brought together the Open Web Search community in Europe for the sixth time, and NGI Sargasso attended it to network with the open search ecosystem and other NGI-funded projects.

Organized by the Open Search Foundation at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Munich (Germany) from the 9th to the 11th of October 2024, the hybrid conference provided a forum to discuss and further develop the ideas and concepts of open internet search, search and AI, and related topics in various formats including scientific talks, panels, workshops, demonstrations, student challenges and informal discussion spaces. Participants included researchers, data centres, libraries, policy-makers, legal and ethical experts, and society.

During the first day Helmut Reiser, the Deputy Director at Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, and Florian Herrmann, State Minister, Head of the Bavarian State Chancellery, gave the Welcome Session, followed by Roberto Viola, DG CONNECT's General Director, who delivered the Opening Keynote.

Then, the Science Tracks took over the agenda, focusing on:

  • Crawling and Infrastructure.
  • Search Applications and Technologies.
  • Preprocessing and ML for Search.
  • LLMs and RAG.

In the afternoon, the Next Generation Internet (NGI) session was hosted, including presentations from NGI Search and OpenWebSearch.eu.

During the second and third days, more keynotes were offered to the participants, being Richard Socher (CEO of You.com), Martin Andree (Bestselling Author and Researcher at the University of Cologne), and Nina Leseberg (Head of Communities & Engagement, Wikimedia Deutschland) the speakers. The rest of the agenda was completed with sessions and workshops focused on Ethics and Society, Legal Aspects of Open Web Search, Economic Aspects of Open Web Search, and an Industry Track titled “Alternative Search Engines”. 

Our partners Sara Abu and Laura Argilés, from AUSTRALO, were there to join the discussions, while getting insights from the ecosystem's researchers, policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders about Next Generation Internet Transatlantic cooperation.

Potential synergies with NGI Search and OpenWebSearch.eu

OSSYM 2024 was attended by two more NGI-funded projects: NGI Search and OpenWebSearch.eu.

Sara and Laura took the opportunity of meeting them in person in Munich to discuss potential collaborations and synergies to work together in the creation of an Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach. They networked with Megi Sharikadze (Head of Research at Leibniz Supercomputing Centre) and Stefan Voigt (Founder and CEO of Open Search Foundation) from OpenWebSearch.eu, and Mirko Presser (Associate Professor at Aarhus University), representing NGI Search.

Together, we will shape a better Internet for our future generations!


NGI Sargasso Calls for Internet Innovators to Join our up to €100K Equity-Free Funding Last Transatlantic Program

Back at school at NGI Sargasso means back at our open calls. In fact, today we our launching our Final Open Call 5. As in our previous open calls, we're pumped to invite innovators from the European UnionUnited States, and Canada to team up and shake up the Next Generation Internet!

At NGI Sargasso we aim to create a space where EU-US, EU-Canada or EU-US-Canada tech breakthroughs can come together by changing the game regarding Next Generation Internet technologies, services, and standards, all while keeping things human-centric on topics such as trust and data sovereignty, digital identity, internet architecture renovation, decentralized technologies, and standards.

So, what's in it for you if you get picked? Loads of good stuff:

  • Up to €100,000 in funding, no strings attached -for this final call, the total budget available is up to €1.200.000.
  • Mentoring and coaching to help you level up.
  • An up to 9-month Capacity-Building Program to dive deep, but you can choose if you prefer 3 or 6 months, instead of 9.
  • Access to a whole community of Next Generation Internet (NGI) innovators.
  • Matchmaking activities to find your partner or partners across the Atlantic.

EU APPLICANTS, CLICK HERE.
US AND CANADIAN APPLICANTS, CLICK HERE.

The Requirements for Internet Innovators to Apply for the NGI Sargasso Open Call 5

Who can throw their hat in the ring? In our Open Call 5, we are open to:

  • Universities, RTOs, and research centres.
  • NGOs and foundations.
  • SMEs and startups.

And here's the deal: your crew has to have at least one member from the EU or one of its Associated Countries (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, and Ukraine) and one from the US and/or Canada, so you can submit your joint project in teams of two or three partners, up to you!

Why should you jump on this opportunity? Well, picture this:

  • You team up with someone from the US and/or Canada, bringing your big ideas to life together.
  • We're talking severe cash here: up to €100,000K per project. That's no small potatoes!
  • Plus, we've got your back every step of the way with business guidance, networking opportunities, and expert insights through our OnCampus program.

Also, we let you choose the length of your Transatlantic project:

  • 9-month program with up to €100,000 equity-free funding.
  • 6-month program with up to  €75,000 equity-free funding.
  • 3-month program with up to €50,000 equity-free funding.

So, what are you waiting for? Here's how to get in on the action:

  • STEP 1: Find a partner from the US and/or Canada on this platform, the Brokerage System.
  • STEP 2: Put together your proposal.
  • STEP 3: Hit submit and cross your fingers!

Opening date: 23rd September 2024.
Closing date: 25th November 2024 at 17:00 CEST (10:00 CDT).

This is your last opportunity to innovate across borders and bring your idea to life, since NGI Sargasso won't launch any more calls! Don't let it slip away, and:

APPLY HERE IF YOU ARE FROM EUROPE.
APPLY HERE IF YOU ARE FROM THE US AND/OR CANADA.

The NGI Sargasso Open Call 5 Info Webinars and Matchmaking Sessions dates

The Brokerage System services offered by NGI Sargasso to facilitate Transatlantic matchmaking are completed with two info webinars and matchmaking sessions per call:

  1. Open Call 5 Info Webinar and Matchmaking Session 1 – 2 October – REGISTER HERE.
  2. Open Call 5 Info Webinar and Matchmaking Session 2 – 30 October – REGISTER HERE

These webinars are perfect for those looking to make quick, informed decisions about potential partners and to gain insights into the latest trends and opportunities in the NGI Sargasso space and to clear all doubts about the application process, so we hope to meet you there!


These are the 11 NGI Sargasso Innovators Selected in the Open Call 3 Ready to Shape the Next Generation Internet

It was the 15th of May 2024 when the NGI Sargasso project closed its Open Call 3 with 73 submitted proposals of Transatlantic teams willing to create a more human-centric Internet for our future generations.

Each one of the submitted applications have been carefully reviewed by external evaluators to finally select 11 of them who will join the NGI Sargasso Innovators Portfolio. They will start their Transatlantic journey onboarding the NGI Sargasso OnCampus Program on the 5th of September 2024 to enjoy the NGI Sargasso funding program benefits, including:

  • Up to €100,000 equity-free funding.
  • Mentoring and coaching services.
  • Up to 9-month capacity-building program, with e-lessons and inspirational talks from industry and business experts and access to international events.
  • Membership to the NGI - The Next Generation Internet Community.

Keep reading to discover more and, if you want to be like them, mark the following date in your calendar: the 23rd of September 2024, because we will launch our last open call, the Open Call 5. 

1. EeDP - Empowering eDemocracy for Peace

EeDP is a collaborative project between ZKorum (France) and IoTeeDom (USA) to foster peaceful community dialogues and enhance civic participation in Ghana and the USA ahead of the presidential elections by leveraging Digital Identity and Decentralized Technologies.

ZKorum is building an open-source, privacy-preserving, and verifiable social network designed to enhance civic participation, foster community dialogues, and bridge the gap between local governments and citizens. Within the scope of this proposal, ZKorum is partnering with IoTeeDom to facilitate dialogues aimed at building smart, peaceful, and sustainable cities in anticipation of the USA and Ghanaian presidential elections between November and December 2024.

2. FVCP - Facilitate Verifiable Credentials Presentation Across Borders

Elevating Lives. Securing Connections.

FVCP will define and develop a framework for wallet and credential interoperability between different decentralized identity (DID) ecosystems, allowing one ecosystem to process credentials from wallets from another ecosystem in a semantically meaningful way with some level of assurance.

3. SafeMode - Empowering Commercial Drivers: Harnessing Next Generation Internet to Enhance Safety, Trust, and Environmental Sustainability

Empowering drivers with control over their data through SafeMode’s AI, enhancing privacy, trust, and safety in digital automotive environments.

SafeMode collaborates with ICS to boost data sovereignty and privacy in fleet management using AI, aligned with NGI principles. This initiative sets new global standards for transparency and safety, leveraging ICS’s network of 60,000 drivers and piloting with Amazon's delivery network to deploy human-centric technology.

4. NG Docu Vault - Next Generation Docu Vault

Creating an inclusive, blockchain-enabled document management system for immigrants, ensuring data sovereignty and seamless identity verification across EU, USA, and Canadian standards, with Docu Assist, an AI-driven multilingual and barrier-free interface for legal guidance.

NG Docu Vault introduces a blockchain-based document management system, paired with 'Docu Assist,' an AI-driven multilingual smart assistant. This setup ensures data sovereignty and seamless identity verification but also facilitates secure document exchanges between immigrants and governmental bodies across the EU, USA, and Canada. The intuitive GUI supports document storage, sharing and retrieval, while the chatbot offers legal assistance, promoting a compliant and inclusive digital environment.

5. LeLink - LeLink

LeLink is an innovative project integrating AI and blockchain technology to enhance healthcare access and ensure data sovereignty for refugees and displaced individuals in crisis situations.

LeLink leverages advanced blockchain and AI technologies to enhance healthcare access for refugees and displaced individuals by ensuring secure, immediate access to medical services and robust data privacy. This scalable platform is designed to optimize emergency responses and uphold data sovereignty, improving healthcare outcomes in crisis situations and supporting seamless integration into existing health systems.

6. GALICIA - Generative AI with Cybersecurity for Internet Applications Development

GALICIA addresses the risks and challenges posed by Generative AI on digital resilience, i.e., the ability of an infrastructure to avoid unexpected disruptions and continue operating when faced with adversity that could otherwise compromise its reliability, safety, security, and usability.

GALICIA will test a novel approach to digital resilience verification by testing LLM generated code for correctness and security on a set of case studies, aiming to ensure compliance with user requirements and given standards. The ambition is to verify source code generated by Generative AI and analyze its limits, thus building trust in Generative AI. GALICIA aligns with the increasing demand for compliance in industrial automation and the need for fast and low cost software production.

7. EVI US Pilot - Electric Vehicle Identity US Pilot

EVI streamlines payment and charging session initiation in EV charging stations, while minimizing personal data dissemination. Within the NGI Sargasso project, the research team will adapt and test EVI decentralized digital identity wallets and verifiable credentials in pilot locations in New York State, USA.

EVI US Pilot is a privacy enhanced dapp to minimize dissemination of personal data to third parties when transacting in Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. Securely storing vehicle certificates linked to users’ digital wallets will eliminate the need to sign up with different applications to access charging stations of different OEMs and CPOs. The dapp will be designed to limit what data can be extracted when an electric vehicle is plugged in the charging station to protect drivers’ privacy.

8. TruPS - Enhancing Trusted Transatlantic Data Processing and Storage with Fully Homomorphic Encryption

Keep your options open and your data secure with TruPS, a legally compliant solution for transatlantic data processing and storage.

TruPS seeks to strengthen EU-USA collaborations by employing Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) for data processing and storage. This project will create a secure, privacy-preserving solution for cross-border data processing and storage. TruPS will address both EU and USA legal regulations, pivotal for enhancing mutual trust and ensuring compliance with stringent data protection regulations, and thus empowering the users with more options for secure and regulatory-compliant data governance.

9. GMM - A Global Market Maker for Decentralized Token Exchanges

The project aims to design and build an automatic pricing algorithm for decentralized exchanges immune to manipulation that utilizes available blockchain information to minimize transaction costs as well as losses from price swings while improving the protection against price manipulation attacks.

GMM is an interdisciplinary project through which computer scientists and economists join forces to design and build a truly global decentralized exchange (DEX) for cryptographic tokens. The key innovation in GMM is the use of all the reserves available blockchain-wide to compute tokens’ prices. By leveraging a larger pool of reserves, the GMM exhibits more stable prices than current DEXs, offering enhanced users’ protection against price manipulation attacks as well as reduced operational costs.

10. POSIDONIA - POSition Information with Digital Twin Offloading in Trustworthy Next-Generation Internet Applications

POSIDONIA is a Digital Twin (DT)-empowered network architecture aimed at providing trustworthy and sustainable Location Based Services (LBS) in Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. Threat mitigation is opportunistically performed either at the local IoT or the Fog-Edge-Cloud continuum.

Within the NGI vision, POSIDONIA tackles a green and human-centric network design for heterogeneous scenarios supported by the Fog-Edge-Cloud continuum. In particular, POSIDONIA envisions a distributed network architecture to provide trustworthy and sustainable LBS in IoT scenarios where threat mitigation is opportunistically offloaded between the local network and its core infrastructure. Therefore, POSIDONIA integrates DTs to ensure interoperability and computationally-heavy operations.

11. IOTPAY - Internet of Things Payment System

IOTPAY aims to build a secure and interoperable decentralized payment ecosystem for connected objects, reducing fraud, errors, and enhancing efficiency.

IOTPAY is dedicated to developing a robust, interoperable decentralized payment ecosystem specifically designed for IoT devices. By harnessing blockchain technology, IOTPAY significantly reduces fraud and errors while boosting operational efficiency. This innovative platform ensures seamless, secure transactions between connected devices, paving the way for a smarter, more reliable digital economy.


NGI Sargasso Open Call 4 Results: 75 Game-Changers are Ready to Build the Next Generation Internet for Humans

On the 1st of August at 17:00 CEST (10:00 CDT), NGI Sargasso closed its Open Call 4 with 75 submitted projects to join us in our mission of creating the Next Generation Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach.

Our fourth open call received a total of 156 applications, out of which 75 were submitted and 81 were left in draft status. Out of the 75 Transatlantic projects that applied to join our funding program offering up to €100,000 equity-free funding per team, 40 were startups or SMEs, 18 were universities, 7 were Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), 5 were Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs), 3 came from other type of organizations, and 2 more applicants were foundations.

NGI Sargasso promotes transatlantic cooperation in Next Generation Internet (NGI) technologies accepting applications from cross-border teams composed of a European counterpart that leads the submission of the application, and a United States (US), or/and Canada counterpart. For the NGI Sargasso Open Call 4, projects were submitted from 22 European countries, with the top five being:

  • France, with 11 applications.
  • Spain and Italy, with 10 applications each.
  • Germany, with 7 applications.
  • Slovenia, with 5 applications.

The rest of the Transatlantic projects came from Romania (4), Belgium (3), Greece (3), Ireland (3), Finland (2), Luxembourg (2), Malta (2), The Netherlands (2), Portugal (2), Serbia (2), Austria (1), Cyprus (1), Estonia (1), Iceland (1), Latvia (1), Poland (1), and Turkey (1).

10 Challenges were Addressed at the NGI Sargasso Open Call 4

A total of ten challenges were addressed by our innovators in our fourth open call:

  1. Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Across Continents.
  2. Harmonized Cross-Atlantic Digital Governance.
  3. Inclusive Public Digital Spaces for Global Community Engagement.
  4. Enhanced Data Security and Privacy in Transcontinental Perspective.
  5. Interoperability and Standardization Across Borders Description.
  6. Global Implementation of Decentralized Technologies.
  7. Next-Gen Cybersecurity and Generative AI.
  8. Next Generation Space Based Internet.
  9. Redefining Intelligence in a Hyperconnected World.
  10. Open Challenge for Next Generation Internet Description.

The NGI Sargasso Last Open Call with up to €100,000 Equity-Free Funding for Internet Innovators Launches in September

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. The NGI Sargasso fifth -and last- open call will be launched on the 23rd of September 2024.

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 Capacity-Building Program 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.
  • Matchmaking services to find their Transatlantic counterpart, through our continually open Brokerage System and matchmaking webinars.

Follow us on LinkedIn, X and Mastodon to discover more, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter!


Subscribe to our newsletter

Horizon Europe – Grant Agreement number 101092887

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.