NGI Horizon 2020: Calling All IoT Innovators

The NGI, or Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, was started by the European Commission back in 2016. It's funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The initiative is run by a body that looks to fund innovation in the area’s key to building a future-proofed Internet; that is “openness, inclusivity, transparency, privacy, cooperation, and protection of data.”

As the Internet has developed and the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved, we've discovered a number of areas of improvement that need to be urgently resolved, including security, data privacy, and ultimately, and trust must be developed and optimized to ensure IoT can be used successfully across the world. A trustworthy IoT is crucial to the protection of data and trust by design is vital for its continued success in our businesses, for our customers, and across our smart cities.

To help to achieve a more trusted Internet and IoT, NGI has a new open call for proposals. They're seeking to fix a number of the issues inherent in IoT and the internet more broadly. To accomplish this, the group, NGI_Trust has been created to offer funding that is focused on creating the tools and methodologies needed to build a more “human-centric” internet.

The first call, which opened on February 1, 2019, covers the following areas:

• Technical innovation in privacy enhancing technologies, such as cryptography, federated identity, security and privacy for IoT, distributed ledgers and privacy-enhancing data transports and data at rest.
• The application of artificial intelligence/machine learning/neural networks to serve the user’s interests (such as addressing concerns arising from the impact of profiling and mass surveillance).
• Bootstrapping trust at the protocol level, to maintain a decentralized internet infrastructure, for the establishment of trust, privacy (and security) between end-users and services.
• Developing means for individuals to make more informed decisions on the relevance of information that they are asked to disclose when accessing and using services.

Applications for funding need to be received by 30 April 2019 at 18:00.

IoT has a number of both security and privacy issues. Funding from NGI_Trust will help to alleviate these issues and get innovative solutions off the ground. If you are an organization within the geographical catchment of the project and your organization comes under the following list of eligible types, then you can consider applying for funding: 

• Researchers and developers (holding a Master’s degree or higher) employed in third-level education institutes, research infrastructures, non-profit organizations and charitable (scientific) foundations and public research centers;
• Internet technologists and innovators, privacy and trust specialists and action groups;
• Organizations/companies with relevant privacy and trust cases or concerns in specific sectors or ‘verticals’ (fields such as health, etc.);
• Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises working on internet-based solutions or and other related technologies.

If you can’t make this call for proposals, further calls will begin in October of 2019 and February 2020.

Further details and application forms for funding can be found at the NGI_Trust website.