Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NGI0 Commons Fund (Create, mature and grow internet commons)
Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-03-31
The larger aim of NGI Zero is to deliver shared technological building blocks for the Next Generation internet: an open, trustworthy, human-centric internet that benefits all.
The program is the fifth NGI Zero grant making programme, focusing on fostering open source and open hardware solutions to upgrade the internet architecture and address the current limitation of decentralized technologies. It levers the proven successful NGI Zero approach to fund and support research and development of projects developing digital commons, with a light-weight granting procedure and orthogonal support services to address internet-scale requirements.
The program is the fifth NGI Zero grant making programme, focusing on fostering open source and open hardware solutions to upgrade the internet architecture and address the current limitation of decentralized technologies. It levers the proven successful NGI Zero approach to fund and support research and development of projects developing digital commons, with a light-weight granting procedure and orthogonal support services to address internet-scale requirements.
In this reporting period – covering the first 14 months of this 42-month project - NGI Zero Commons Fund started supporting 95 free and open source projects across the ten NGI layers of technology distinguished by NGI – from silicon level tooling to services and applications (such as instant messaging, digital maps and social media. NGI Zero doesn’t just distribute grants: all beneficiaries can request support services to improve the maturity, quality and usability of their projects on topics such as security, reproducibility, accessibility and licensing & copyright compliance. Support is also offered to strengthen the communities behind the projects with services such as diversity & inclusion management and mentoring. The NGI Zero consortium not only supports its own grantees with this expert knowledge, but also freely shares its insights and best practices with everyone interested.
NGI Zero funds small projects for which the R&D itself process takes significant time, and regularly the effort is spread over a long period. In many cases, the work is also interspersed with other duties. Because budget is incrementally donated when work is actually completed and verified, spending follows allocation with a predicable time lag. There is a buffer of work done which is completed but not yet claimed, but the vast majority of projects is still underway and will only complete their work in the second reporting period.