In mid-July, Horizon Europe was drafting the funding aims for cluster 4. There was no space for the Next Generation family of sub-funds that provide cascade funding for 2025.
NGI provides funding to grassroots technologists to help build the Next Generation Internet. The focus of the funding is to build a human rights-focused internet. To provide digital sovereignty as an alternative to the walled gardens of Web 2.0. These walled gardens, of email and social media are increasingly in the power of billionaires.
Those cascade funds also allow the creation of new Internet Technologies, based on new concepts but using older building blocks. All are built with the idea of privacy and Human Rights in mind. Work not hype.
So it was a shock for people representing the NGI coalition to find out that there was no room for funding for 2025. They hoped to get it back for 2026. Why was there no room for funding?
Because of AI investment. The EU wishes to focus on AI. AI is hot right now.
On the 15th of July, Petites Singuarities raised the alarm. The mastodon account Hackstub posted about this. [1] PS had published an open letter and asked projects who had benefited from NGI and perhaps wanted to benefit from NGI to sign the open letter. A few days later OW2 translated the Open Letter into English.
This will make sustainability for many FOSS projects particularly those on the Fediverse Harder. We will not see the effects of this until the close of 2025 when the existing NGI Zero Funds start to close through to 2027. Although with the recent RIPE announcement that they will be pausing their RIPE Community Fund for a year, small seed funding for FOSS will get harder. Because there will be fewer open funds to apply to, the competition between FOSS projects and individuals for grants will increase. [2]
I'm not here to bitch about AI investment. There's a lot wrong with the hype cycle and others have pointed out the folly and waste of investment into fad technologies that are based on useful tools. The current Hype cycle also does a disservice to the folks who have been working in the space for years. Automation is an important concept, Artificial Intelligence has produced some very cool things. Like Asmio. But like the blockchain, AI isn't an answer for everything. Nor should it be used in some cases. Particularly where you need accountability.
Much like the cloud, blockchain and now Large Language Models, we are seeing computing emissions build up, at a time when we need to create more efficient systems. To enable degrowth as part of Horizons EU's Overall Environmental goals.
I'd like to instead tell you about NGI Zero, the series of funds that have enabled grassroots investment and development of FOSS. To build the Internet of the Future.
I want to talk to you about the community. I want to tell you about the organisations that are part of this coalition that want to support our FOSS communities and the tools they build.
Since 2019, NLNet and the partners of NGI Zero have sought projects to invest in. Many of those projects are Fediverse projects. In addition to that, through Zero, we have all looked to improve our projects and face our legal obligations like the Software Supply chain. We seek to find other projects to collaborate with. We build each other up and support each other.
We may be in some small cliques, but every single one of us is committed to digital sovereignty in Europe. We are committed to the principles of the 4 freedoms of Free Software. We are committed to the promises to society that those 4 freedoms mean. The work we do with others ripples out.
With small seed investment from NGI Zero and Assure we see the investment of the EU ripple out. We see cooperation on a small global scale with small communities forming on Mastodon and other community communication hubs. We see small projects developing tools to help FOSS overall. But we are small. We need help from our developers who choose to code for everyone. At decidedly low market rates. Our community is great value for the citizens and residents of the EU.
We range in age from students to older folks. We come from different backgrounds. Some privileged some not. AI investment does not invest in the grassroots. The larger Horizon funds are not relevant to the community creation that happens within the NGI Zero family. Horizon Funds are often aimed at incorporated startups or universities. So there is a limited pool of individuals from a background of already having a business or being attached to an institution. The rest of us in FOSS don't qualify.
The non-NGI Zero Cascade funding isn't relevant to many people on the Fediverse or grassroots FOSS. The main Horizon Funding body, Horizon Malta has no presence on the Fediverse. FundingBox, which administrates many of the funds has a central platform, with no presence on the Fediverse.
Their hangout of choice is Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The old bastions of Web 2.0. The same old communities of the status quo. The NGI Assure account was on Mastodon, with no engagement. So folks weren't sure if the account was genuine. So the NGI Assure grantees ended up tagging any posts about their work for the fund. While Funding Bodies do have to remain neutral especially with EU funding they can take NLNet's example of how to operate on the Fediverse to find some incredibly innovative people. Not all of them are in tech either.
The NLNet Foundation and their NGI Zero partners are on the Fediverse. The NLNet foundation has its own instance. NGI Zero helped the community to persuade the EU to have a presence on the Fediverse. They toe the line of community engagement but also know to not bring the EU into disrepute. They tell us about funds that are available and do the work so that the grassroots do the work of promoting those funds.
This work is why the Zero Funds are so popular with hundreds of applications per open call. They do provide support to us and engage with us. They will answer questions. Each applicant does get asked some very hard questions to review the quality of the application and if the applicants are prepared to complete it.
I do most of my community communication on Mastodon and Matrix. My people are on there. They come from the grassroots, from a corporate background, from all over the world in varying levels of privilege. Does the EU want to fund this collaboration? Does it want a sustainable set of dependable community builders in both software and the communities that organise on that software?
Does the EU and its member countries want digital sovereignty that's not under threat from the Markets or the Governments where those walled gardens are based? Does the EU want a thriving market of innovation?
I hope that the EU Reconsiders. If you want to sign the open letter you can sign it here.
Librecast has already signed it. We got our start from NGI Funding. We are continuing to develop through NGI Funding. We couldn't innovate with Librecast without that funding. We wouldn't be in Debian if we hadn't presented at conferences and got to know Reproducible Builds. We wouldn't be in NixOS without NGI Review. We wouldn't be having a Security Review of our code without Radically Open Security. The FSFE helps with software licencing and reuse of code through it's REUSE software. This is important with FOSS's obligations to the Software Supply chain.
All of NGI Zero and their partners help small projects like Librecast to innovate and create new technology. They all help us to remain sustainable while we build the tools for the Next Generation Internet.
A shortfall of funding of third parties in 2025 ripples down to 2027 when Horizon EU ends. We need to consider how we enable continuity in our FOSS projects. I agree with the Free Software Foundation Europe, that Public Money should be spent on public code. I'd go further, I think the EU needs to pay maintainers and projects. The EU needs to fund community outreach.
All of us in this ecosystem give a lot of time to FOSS. FOSS projects consist of folks, who all have a powerful need to eat sometime this month.
We can free the EU from reliance on American Corporate Infrastructure. But we need to develop new technology to fund this. Innovation comes from small organisations and small teams. Investment in EU Grassroots organisations will ripple out into their local communities.
AI is a dead end. Which will consume our dwindling resources including power and water. AI will continue to promote bias. AI will continue the status quo at a time when we need radical new technology to adapt to a rapidly changing world. AI will not innovate as it recycles bias and the same old ideas that were created with a different worldview.
Our code and our projects are real. Our communities are dedicated to the idea of Human Rights with the Freedom of Association and Privacy. Please reinstate NGI Funding to cluster 4.
[1] https://kolektiva.social/@hackstub/112762068812732277
[2] https://labs.ripe.net/author/alastair_strachan/ripe-ncc-community-projects-fund-paused-for-2025/