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.

by admin

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!

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Software in the European Regulatory Landscape: An Inspirational Talk by Daniel Thompson-Yvetot for the NGI Sargasso Innovators

Daniel is an NGI Influencer, Co-Founder of Tauri and CEO of CrabNebula, and an NGI Sargasso supportive partner

“Is the European regulatory landscape in software protecting the most vulnerable?” This question was the starting point of an inspirational talk by Daniel Thompson-Yvetot, NGI Influencer, Co-Founder of Tauri and CEO of CrabNebula, an NGI Sargasso supportive partner contributing to the NGI Sargasso mission of building a more human-centric Internet. 

When speaking about vulnerability, Daniel referred to the human, the person and our rights, understanding that “GDPR protects humans, not companies.”

On the 22nd of May 2024, he offered the NGI Sargasso innovators from the Open Call 1 and Open Call 2 an inspirational talk as part of their 9-month OnCampus program activities to discuss about software in the European regulatory landscape.

CrabNebula’s CEO put the focus of his talk in explaining in detail the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), the Product Liability Directive (PLD), the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the AI Act (AIA), remarking that acts in which citizens can contribute can become laws to enter force. 

His presentation ended up in a live discussion with our innovators about the several acts he introduced.

CrabNebula, the new NGI Sargasso supportive partner promoting open source and accessibility

CrabNebula is a company built on the vision of enabling individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses to sustainably build, develop and distribute their multi-platform apps to mass audiences. They are an official partner of Tauri.

Daniel Thompson-Yvetot is a long-time open source champion, contributor and a passionate innovator of tools. His professional career has spanned the realms of culture, technology and social activism. Daniel’s dedication to life-long learning and personal development has equipped him to become an agile and compassionate leader. Together with Lucas Nogueira, he co-founded the Tauri open source project, and also serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Tauri Programme within the Commons Conservancy.

The pillars of their values are private and secure by design, optimize for sustainability, and open source and accessible. These values are aligned with the NGI Sargasso mission of creating a Next Generation Internet of trust with a human-centric approach, and that is why CrabNebula has become an NGI Sargasso supportive partner.

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An NGI Sargasso Innovator Creates the World's First Platform Offering Public Administration as a Service and Digitizes Public Institutions in Romania

The NGI Sargasso Open Call 2 innovator Alexandru Panait, from AI Professional Software Solution (Romania) has founded Gov-Smart, the world's first platform offering public administration as a service, digitalizing public institutions in Romania.

Alexandru applied to our second open call, and got selected in two projects:

  • DES: Decentralized Electronic Signature using Blockchain based Digital Identity, developed with VizLore LLC (USA).
  • Trustless Democracy: Decentralized Digital Sovereign Identity and Voting System using Blockchain Technology, developed with Université de Sherbrooke (Canada).

While working at the NGI Sargasso 9-month OnCampus Program, with Gov-Smart, he has launched an innovative solution that promises to transform public administration in Romania through complete digitization and advanced automation.

By implementing interconnected modules specific to each type of institution, the company aims to automate up to 90% of public servants' work, significantly reducing repetitive tasks and improving administrative efficiency, not only in relation to taxpayers. With the Gov-Smart solution, citizens will be able to instantly obtain fiscal attestation certificates or other types of documents from any local administration connected to the service, thus eliminating waiting times and unnecessary travel. By the end of the year, the company will integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the platform, taking automation to an impressive level of 99%.

In this scenario, public servants will become auditors and approvers of AI-prepared documents, not just executors. Moreover, internal procedures of public institutions can also be automated and personalized.

The new Gov-Smart platform includes a transparency module that displays detailed charts about public spending, performed acquisitions, and job announcements for all local administrations in Romania. Standardized forms facilitate citizens' access to information and allow them to submit requests based on Law 544 if the desired information is not available.

Gov-Smart's founder, Alexandru Panait, has extensive experience in cybersecurity, particularly in the public administration sector.

The NGI Sargasso funding program support to create Gov-Smart

Gov-Smart modernizes the existing portal e-primariaTa.ro, also founded by Alexandru Panait in 2020. With the help of European Commission funding, of up to 200,000€ (up to 100,000€ per each of his two selected projects), through NGI Sargasso, the platform is a global solution with the potential to become Romania's second unicorn.

“We are proud to launch the world's first Governance as a Service concept. To demonstrate the scalability of our solution, we have managed to integrate 3.187 local administrations in Romania into the platform, standardizing and making their activities transparent. This step represents a major leap towards efficient and transparent public administration, offering citizens quick and easy access to public interest information or obtaining documents in a very short time. We are already in discussions with authorities from other European countries and even the USA to implement this modern service,” says Alexandru Panait, Founder of Gov-Smart.

Through this innovation, Gov-Smart aims to create a business-friendly environment for investors and open new business opportunities, while ensuring an efficient, transparent, and citizen-oriented public administration, as Alexandru explained in an interview in the Romanian television.

https://youtu.be/Zlnkid8SDOk?feature=shared

Alexandru Panait also participated as a speaker at the PeakIT Conference, the first technical conference in Brașov (Romania) from the IT community to the IT community.

The NGI Sargasso selected projects: DES and Trustless Democracy

The DES project (Decentralized Electronic Signature using Blockchain based Digital Identity), under the NGI Sargasso support programme, seeks to create a groundbreaking decentralized electronic signature system using blockchain technology. Integrated with Gov-Smart, it will enable citizens to generate secure digital signatures, verified and authenticated through a robust blockchain framework. This initiative promises to revolutionize public sector transactions, offering unparalleled security, transparency, and efficiency.

Challenging the traditional concept that democracy is limited to voting every four years, the Trustless Democracy project, (Decentralized Digital Sovereign Identity and Voting System using Blockchain Technology), employs cutting-edge blockchain technology and zero-knowledge proofs to facilitate continuous, cost-free electoral participation. This initiative integrates secure digital identities and an innovative open-source voting system, designed to significantly boost citizen efficiency and involvement in democratic processes. Their first implementation will be through Gov-Smart.

You can have a look at other NGI Sargasso innovators projects to discover how they are creating an Internet of Trust.

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NGI Sargasso Launches its Open Call 4 for Innovators Ready to Unleash the Future of the Internet with up to €100K Equity-free Funding

The NGI Sargasso consortium is happy to start the month of June with one more funding opportunity: today we are launching our Open Call 4 looking for innovators to reshape the Internet of the Future with up to €100,000 equity-free funding, until the 1st of August, 2024.

Startups and SMEs, universities and research centres, and NGOs and foundations focused on Next Generation Internet (NGI) technologies can bring their visionary ideas to life with the NGI Sargasso Open Call 4, on topics such as trust and data sovereignty, digital identity, internet architecture renovation, decentralized technologies, and standards.

We will attract teams formed by one entity from Europe or one of its Associated Countries and one entity from the US or Canada, since at NGI Sargasso we are fostering a unique collaborative ecosystem and cascade funding program for promoting the Transatlantic cooperation to shape the Internet of the Future:

The NGI Sargasso Open Call 4 benefits

The benefits for the NGI Sargasso Transatlantic teams selected in our fourth open call willing to unleash future Internet with a human-centric approach are:

  • Various capacity-building programs:
  • 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.
  • Comprehensive Support, such as mentoring, coaching, and access to leading tech conferences and innovation summits.
  • Community Engagement with free access to a dynamic community of over 3,000 Internet innovators.

https://youtu.be/zT9p936KK_A

The NGI Sargasso Open Call 4 Info Webinars and Matchmaking Sessions dates

The first step to apply for NGI Sargasso Open Call 4 is to register in our Brokerage System, a platform where European entities can be matched with the US or Canadian ones – or the other way around. The application process is as follows:

  1. Registration in the Brokerage Platform to match your Transatlantic partner.
  2. Sign a Letter Support with your Transatlantic partner and draft your project together.
  3. Submit your joint application on the NGI Sargasso website –  the European counterpart.

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

  1. Open Call 4 Info Webinar and Matchmaking Session I - 11 June - REGISTER HERE.
  2. Open Call 4 Info Webinar and Matchmaking Session II - 9 July - 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.

Don't miss this opportunity to apply for our Open Call 4 and secure up to €100,000 equity-free funding to build an Internet of Trust. Save your spot for our matchmaking events now!

We are a European-funded project part of Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.

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NGI Sargasso Collaborates with the EU-funded Project FORGING, Promoting a Human-Centered Methodology for Industry 5.0

The NGI Sargasso initiative, a unique collaborative ecosystem and program for promoting the Transatlantic cooperation for Next Generation Internet technologies with a human-centric approach, has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to join the EU-funded project FORGING in shaping a human-centered methodology in alignment with Industry 5.0.

Technological breakthroughs empowered by enabling technologies hold a transformation potential that can be funnelled to address industrial and societal grand challenges, like greening and digitalization. To exploit this transformative potential, the innovation journey that leads new emerging technologies to their market-uptake shall embed since its early value-sensitive considerations, such as environmental and societal implications.

FORGING proposes a pioneering methodology based on a value-sensitive innovation process to promote technological paths that are attentive to the environment and society. The project is focused on the human being in parallel with the technical context of Industry 5.0. To maximize the impact of the proposed action plan, FORGING acts in parallel as a hub for synergies, serving as a platform where projects with aligned missions can communicate with relevant stakeholders.

Upcoming FORGING Workshops in June 2024

FORGING has launched a new in-person workshop series that combine different disciplines to stimulate new technological pathways attentive to the environment and society: “Novel Enabling Technologies for a Sustainable Future”, diving deep into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cybersecurity, in the Italian city of Rome:

  • Workshop on Artificial Intelligence (12-13 June) – REGISTER HERE.
  • Workshop on Cyber Safe Data Transmission, Storage and Analysis Technologies (13-14 June) – REGISTER HERE.

These workshops are a great opportunity for the following stakeholders to co-define use cases of enabling emerging technologies in a sustainable and responsible way:

  1. Technology providers: researchers from RTOs and academia and start-ups with technologies from the targeted technological frameworks: AI and cyber safe data transmission, storage and analysis.
  2. Technology adopters or users: they can be from any industry.
  3. End user associations: they could be worker councils from manufacturing industries in a use case of AI in manufacturing process or a citizen association working on use of AI in insurance.

The travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed.

If you are interested, we invite you to find out more about the FORGING upcoming events.

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NGI Sargasso Open Call 3 Results: 73 Innovators Willing to Create an Internet of Trust

73 is the number of submitted proposals coming from European, US and Canadian innovators willing to create an Internet of Trust. On the 15th of May at 17:00 CEST / 10:00 CDT, we closed our Open Call 3, looking for startups and SMEs, Universities and RTOs and NGOs and Foundations from both sides of the Atlantic to join us in our mission shaping a more human-centric Internet for our future generations.

Out of the 73 submitted projects from joint teams from a European country and the United States or Canada, 46 are ideas from SMEs and startups; 11, from universities; 6, from NGOs; 4, from RTOs; 2, from foundations, and 4 more, from other type of organizations.

Regarding the country of origin of the submitted projects, the top 3 list of a total of 26 European countries is as follows:

  1. France: 12.
  2. Spain: 9.
  3. Italy: 6.

This list is followed by Slovenia (5); Austria, Germany and Greece (4); Ireland, Netherlands and Romania (3); Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia and Turkey (2), and one project coming from each of these countries: Czechia, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The NGI Sargasso Open Call 3 Addressed Challenges

A total of ten challenges were addressed by our innovators in our third 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 Standardisation Across Borders Description.
  6. Global Implementation of Decentralised 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.

Two more NGI Sargasso Open Calls in 2024 with up to €100,000 equity-free funding per beneficiary

As a unique collaborative ecosystem and program for promoting the Transatlantic cooperation for Next Generation Internet technologies, we will launch two more open calls in 2024, so stay tuned to our social media to discover more:

  • Open Call 4: Summer 2024.
  • Open Call 5 (our last call): Autumn 2024.

After being carefully reviewed by external evaluators, NGI Sargasso selected beneficiaries can get 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. Besides, the NGI Sargasso innovators also get invited to join a +3,000 members community of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.

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The NGI Sargasso Events of March 2024: From the NGI Coordinators Meeting to our Open Call 3 Info Webinar & Matchmaking Session

In February, we told you that those working in innovation and connectivity know that the annual February event is without any doubt the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and with it, its startup event, 4YFN. As Internet innovators, at NGI Sargasso we couldn't miss the date, and besides attending it, we also organized our own panel "NGI Sargasso: Equity-free funding for your Next Generation Internet idea".

But with March, many other events came, and we have decided to list them below to tell you what we have been up to lately, so keep reading to discover more about our activities!

The NGI Initiative Coordinators Meeting

On the 13th and 14th of March, Teresa Barber, Innovation Project Manager at Mobile World Capital Barcelona, represented NGI Sargasso at the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative Coordinators Meeting. During these two days, she looked for synergies with the rest of the NGI funded projects, especially with our sibling projects NGI Enrichers and NGI Transatlantic, supported by our Project Officer, Stergios Tsiafoulis.

EIC Summit 2024 - Research and Innovation Week

Our partner Mobile World Capital Barcelona attended the Research and Innovation Week at the EIC Summit 2024 in Brussels. Marta Portalés, Head of European Projects, spent some days at the European Innovation Council Summit (18-21 March 2024) meeting and networking with the different ecosystem stakeholders: start-ups, procurers, researchers, policy makers and investors. She organized 1-on-1 meetings with the event participants to present them the NGI Sargasso funding program to shape a human-centric Next Generation Internet with a Transatlantic partner and up to €100,000 equity-free funding.

Since we foster Transatlantic cooperation through joint projects of teams of innovators formed by one counterpart from Europe and another counterpart form the USA or Canda, she talked to the USA, Canadian and European potential applicants for our Open Call 3, accepting applications until the 15th of May.

Transfiere 2024

Our third event of March wasn't it Brussels, it was in the Spanish city of Málaga. Again, our partner Mobile World Capital Barcelona spent the 21st and 22nd of March promoting our Open Call 3, aiming to reach potential applicants from Europe to join us in our mission of creating an Internet of Trust.

Transfiere is Europe’s largest event on R&D&I and knowledge transfer connecting the entire Spanish innovation system and boosting its international projection. We were looking for Internet innovators interested in topics such as trust, data sovereignty, digital identity, Internet architecture and renovation, decentralized technology, interoperability and standardization, and new internet commons.

Sploro NGI Cascade Funding Info Webinar

On the 22nd of March, our partner Sploro gathered the NGI-funded projects NGI Mobifree, NGI Commons, NGI Zero Core, NGI Taler and us, NGI Sargasso, in a webinar to present our funding opportunities and open calls for Internet innovators, distributing between 50,000€ and 100,000€ equity-free funding. At this info webinar, they delved into these NGI groundbreaking projects driving the evolution of the Internet towards a trusted and inclusive digital ecosystem.

NGI Sargasso Open Call 3 Info Webinar and Matchmaking Session I

And last, but not least, we closed the month of March with our own event to promote the NGI Sargasso Open Call 3. On the 26th, the NGI Sargasso team hosted an info webinar followed by a matchmaking session for potential open call applicants from Europe, the USA and Canada to provide them valuable guidance to our funding program. The session consisted of two parts:

  1. The first part featured an overview of the available benefits, the application process, and the selection criteria.
  2. The second part focused on a dedicated matchmaking session to help attendees find their Transatlantic partner in several networking tables.

In case you missed it, and you are also interested in applying for our third open call, we are hosting a second NGI Sargasso Info Webinar and Matchmaking Session on the 17th of April at 16:00 CEST / 09:00 CDT to which we invite you to register now!

Join NGI Sargasso in our mission to build and Internet of Humans and an Internet of Trust!

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Our Second Open Call Innovators Aboard their NGI Sargasso Transatlantic Journey to Create an Internet of Trust

"Welcome aboard!"

These were the first two words our NGI Sargasso second open call beneficiaries heard from the NGI Sargasso consortium at their OnCampus Welcome Day in the afternoon of the 7th of March 2024. Aboard an innovative Transatlantic journey to unleash the Future of the Internet with us.

The warm welcome was given by our project coordinator from the European Science Foundation, Emmanouil Detsis, to then dive into the OnCampus program to develop their projects with the NGI Sargasso support. Our OnCampus includes mentoring services, flipped classroom activities, LLP video lectures, interviews with relevant industry agents, inspirational talks from experts, and coaching. In fact, they could meet two of our coaches, Jordi Bosch i García and Juan Juan.

The mentoring includes webinars about topics such as fundraising and pitch deck. The flipped classrooms aim at asking "uncomfortable" questions to the teams to generate debate and taking advantage of the validations of the hypotheses. The LLP video lectures offer online recorded sessions explaining the whole theory of LLP by its creator Steve Blank, covering topics like value proposition and customer relations.

During the duration of each OnCampus program (it can be a 9-month, 6-month or 3-months program, depending on the option the beneficiaries applied for during our second open call), the selected innovators have the mission to conduct a minimum of 5 interviews a month with their ecosystem with the goal of putting their teams in front of the "real world". They also have the opportunity to attend inspirational talks from experts, such as the ones Glenn Ricart and Mirko Boehm offered to our first batch of beneficiaries.

All this activities are guided, supported and supervised by coaches, with the aim of ensuring the correct progress of the team and its alignment with the program’s objectives and milestones. Coaches guide the teams towards their business objectives in the short and long term, alerting to any misalignment or conflicts during project implementation. Together, we have to make sure we are in the process of building a human-centric Internet!

A new era of Transatlantic collaboration to shape Internet's future

The NGI Sargasso OnCampus program ambitions to create a space where innovation professionals come together, where entrepreneurship is celebrated, and where each project gets the impetus it requires to make a global mark. The program’s main goals were articulated to our beneficiaries during the Welcome Day, setting the tone for the forthcoming months:

  1. Cross-Collaboration and Networking: The essence of innovation often lies in collaboration. By fostering a space where beneficiaries can connect, share, and grow, the OnCampus program envisions a web of ideas that traverses oceans.
  2. Excellence and Impact Recognition: Every project deserves its moment in the sun. With a keen focus on recognizing excellence and gauging real-world impact, the program ensures that every innovative spark gets the acknowledgment it warrants.
  3. Business-Minded Support: Beyond ideation, the transformation of a project into a sustainable business model is crucial. Beneficiaries are provided with the necessary guidance and resources to think beyond the project, considering scalability and profitability.
  4. Global Exposure: In today’s interconnected world, a local idea can have global repercussions. Through the OnCampus program, each project is given the platform to be showcased on an international stage.

During the webinar, the innovators were also informed about the calendar of activities, the KPIs they have to achieve and the payment procedures, as well as about some communication guides to make the most out of their innovative projects.

The Welcome Day is just the start of this journey, and with it, a new era of Transatlantic collaboration has just begun!

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NGI Sargasso Hosts a Panel at 4YFN 2024 Offering Equity-Free Funding Opportunities for Next Generation Internet Innovators

Those working in innovation and connectivity know that the annual February event is without any doubt the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and with it, its startup event, 4YFN. As a project focused on promoting the Transatlantic cooperation for Next Generation Internet (NGI) technologies, NGI Sargasso couldn't miss this relevant date. But not only we attended it, we organized our own NGI Sargasso panel to offer our equity-free funding opportunities for Next Generation Internet ideas.

The NGI Sargasso panel at 4YFN 2024: NGI Sargasso: Equity-free funding for your Next Generation Internet idea

On the 27th of February at 15:00h, at Pavilion 8.1, Stand 8.1 B55 of Fira Barcelona at 4YFN 2024, our panel was just starting. Teresa Barber, Innovation Project Manager at the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, introduced the session to the audience, giving the floor to Monique Calisti, NGI Outreach Office Director from Martel Innovate.

Monique presented the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative new opportunities and synergies, which objective is to "create a growing community at work to build an Internet of trust for all. 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", she said. She also highlighted that the NGI has funded more than 1,000 innovators with inclusive and trust-based complementary technology building blocks, and added that the initiative is providing funding to support innovators including individual researchers, developers, start-ups and SMEs.

Monique Calisti, NGI Outreach Officer Director, introducing the NGI initiative research and innovation actions at 4YFN 2024

Teresa introduced our project, NGI Sargasso, remarking that our objective is:

To create a unique collaborative ecosystem to harvest EU-US and/or EU-Canada technology breakthroughs that aim to revolutionize the Next Generation Internet technologies, services and standards, and contribute to the evolution of the Internet according to a human-centric approach of the internet commons.

Virginia Gómez, European Projects Head at Sploro, explained the NGI Sargasso open calls requirements. Internet innovators have a date with us, because we are launching our third open call on the 15th of March, and we will accept applications until the 15th of May. As in our previous open calls, we are looking for Universities and RTOs, Foundations and NGOs, and Startups and SMEs from Europe and its Associated Countries, as well as from the USA and Canada. If you are interested, mark the dates in your calendar, together with our third open call webinars and matchmaking sessions:

  • First InfoDay and Matchmaking Session: the 26th of March 2024.
  • Second InfoDay and Matchmaking Session: the 10th of April 2024.
Virginia Gómez, from Sploro, speaking about NGI Sargasso open call requirements at 4YFN 2024

The OnCampus perks for the NGI Sargasso open calls beneficiaries were also presented by Teresa, who highlighted that:

The OnCampus program aims to support and grow tech projects while building a network of innovation professionals, promoting entrepreneurship, and boosting the project's deal flow.​ The program goals focus on cross-collaboration and networking, excellence and impact recognition, business-minded support, and global exposure.

Besides, NGI Sargasso selected innovators can get up to €100,000 equity-free funding for those joining a 9-month program. However, we also offer the option to join a 6-month program (€75,000) or a 3-month program (€50,000).

Teresa Barber, from the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, sharing the NGI OnCampus perks at 4YFN 2024

The panel finished with a discussion and Q&A session starring by three of our NGI Sargasso innovators from the first open call:

  • EvORAN: Jordi Mongay Batalla, from the Warsaw University of Technology, spoke about what lies beyond in Open-RAN network evaluation. He is collaborating with Houbing Herbert Song, from the University of Maryland. Together, they are unraveling the mysteries of EvORAN - the Evaluation of Open-RAN Network Equipment Including Underlying. At our NGI Sargasso 4YFN 2024 panel Jordi took the stage to share the future of Open-RAN network evaluation.
  • EBSI-CAN: Lluís Alfons Ariño, Deputy to Manager and Commissioner of Open Gov. and ICT for strategic planning of ICT and resources at Rovira i Virgili University, made us wonder about the potential of EBSI in cross-border credentialing. Lluís, along with Alex Grech and Klaudia Gyorgyi Farkas, from the 3CL Foundation, are exploring in their collaborative project just that with EBSI-CAN: EBSI and Verifiable Credentialing in Canada. At our NGI Sargasso event they delved into the governance, legal, technical, and business landscape of this groundbreaking initiative.
  • D3ICA: Julien Bringer, the CEO of Kallistech, shared the answer to the question 'How can we democratize digital identity?' His project, D3ICA: Democratizing Decentralized Digital Identity through Cloud Agents, focuses on diversity, inclusion, usability, and interoperability. At our panel at 4YFN 2024, he uncovered how D3ICA is set to revolutionize the digital identity landscape.
Some of the NGI Sargasso first open call innovators at the panel discussion at 4YFN 2024 speaking about their projects to redefine future Internet

More about NGI Sargasso

NGI Sargasso is a European Commission funded project, part of the Horizon Europe Programme. It aims to create a unique collaborative ecosystem to harvest EU-US or EU-Canada technology breakthroughs to revolutionize the Next Generation Internet technologies, services and standards. It also aims to contribute to the evolution of the Internet according to a human-centric approach of the Internet commons through five open calls to fund 90 Transatlantic teams to redefine future Internet working with topics such as trust and data sovereignty, digital identity, internet architecture renovation, decentralized technologies, and standards with a budget of €4,800,000.

In addition, the NGI Sargasso project is part of the umbrella initiative, the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative, launched by the European Commission in 2016, which supports this vision of building bridges internationally.

More about 4YFN 2024 and Mobile World Congress 2024

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.

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.

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