Easy access to ICT funding and support through NGI RIA experts

The NGI community relies on groups of experts to select, fund, mentor and coordinate Next Generation Internet projects – it’s their turn to shine! The latest in a series of position papers highlights the Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) – the enablers for NGI projects to get funded in an easier way and move fast to develop ICT innovations.

NGI invests 20 percent of the EC H2020 funding in organising the calls, the selection, monitoring, mentoring and training of project participants, as well as building and growing the NGI community. Through an innovative cascade funding model, the remaining 80 percent is allocated to fund projects.

NGI supports researchers, developers, hi-tech start-ups and individuals from all over Europe. Projects include cryptography, social innovation, search technology and secure operating systems. The financing and support they receive from the RIAs makes all the difference to ideas that would otherwise not see the light of day.

LEDGER, NGI Trust and NGI Zero – soon to be joined by complementary RIAS – select who gets funding, they provide technical and business advice and they coordinate within and between projects.

Here’s what they had to say about the benefits of NGI they’re witnessing and the issues tackled by NGI projects:

“People spend many hours in their room developing tech – then, with NGI, they find they can afford to devote a few years of their professional life to improve the Internet”, Andrés Sánchez, coordinator of LEDGER.

“NGI Trust and NGI Zero Discovery are funding two distinct but related projects […] For such solutions to challenge or be an alternative to existing technologies of large incumbents in the market and become a trusted environment, we have to move fast”, Alasdair Reid, coordinator of NGI Trust

“The current search infrastructure determines who wins the race to human attention. Millions of people depend on a small number of intermediaries to find a hotel, to read the news or to fall in love. Lifestyles can be governed and businesses destroyed by the ranking of the information presented.” Michiel Leenaars, coordinator of NGI Zero

Access the full story, ‘NGI: Expertise to select, fund mentor and coordinate Next Generation Internet projects’ here