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! 

by admin

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.

by admin

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 submitted applications, 104 of them being submitted. This means that 104 innovators are willing to join us in our mission of shaping an Internet of Trust with a human-centric approach for our generations to come, the highest number of our open call program.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by admin

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 Union, United 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!

by admin

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!

by admin

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.

by admin

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.

by admin

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.

by admin

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.

by admin