ABOUT

The internet lies at the heart of our modern economies and societies, but it was not designed to be used in the way we use it now. Additional innovations are needed, in particular to make usage of remote resources on the internet more trustworthy and secure. The goal of NGI Assure is to support projects that design and engineer reusable building blocks for the Next Generation Internet as part of a complete, strong chain of assurances for all stakeholders regarding the source and integrity of identities, identifiers, data, cyberphysical systems, service components and processes. Furthermore contributions can be made to address underlying real-world challenges in deploying and validating such building blocks, such as energy efficiency and sustainability, scalability and throughput, security, privacy/confidentiality, plausible deniability, robustness and crypto-agility, side-channel resistance, interoperability, governance and compliance to regulatory frameworks - where needed to turn the above into reproducible and trustworthy end-to-end solutions that can withstand the hostile battle grounds of the modern internet.

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AREAS

The project will fund very open topics but around the following areas detailed at the NGI ASSURE Work Programme:

  • Libre SoftwareLibre Software
  • Open HardwareOpen Hardware
  • CryptographyCryptography
  • StandardisationStandardisation
  • Logic ProofsLogic Proofs

Building blocks for a better future

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

NGI Assure is looking for building blocks that contribute to providing such assurances include (but are not limited to) quantum-proof cryptography, public key infrastructure, (augmented) authenticated key exchange, ratchet mechanisms (such as the Noise protocol) that securely chain key material, distributed hash tables and DAGs to make P2P interaction more secure, conflict-free replicated data types, mixnets and onion routing mechanisms, consensus protocols, distributed ledgers and (post) blockchain technologies that create redundant data sets managed independently by mutually distrustful parties, a priori usage control, symbolic and formal proofs, and tamperproof open hardware implementations of core cryptographic primitives. The work needs to become available under free and open source licenses.

NGI ASSURE

WHAT IS THE GOAL?

We are looking for deep tech components; the outcomes of NGI Assure shall contribute towards identifying and solving current issues, but do not need to provide a complete solution by themselves. NGI Assure enables collaboration among humans without unjustified trust. We need your contributions to help reshape the state of play, and to help create an open, trustworthy and reliable internet for all. And of course such contributions do not happen automatically. This is why between now and 2023 we will award 5.6 million euro in small to medium-size R&D grants towards R&D efforts and free and open source projects that can deliver the above. We are looking for new ideas and core technologies that help society tackle hard but very very important questions, each of which has significant social and economic consequences.

NGI ASSURE

Open Calls selection process

Submission is through a fast and lightweight process, we are eager to learn what solutions and ideas you've come up with. Based on the submitted proposals, projects receive a first check for eligibility in terms of alignment of goals and criteria with NGI Assure. The second stage is used to select strategic projects which not only satisfy the minimal criteria, but also have potentially a lasting impact on society. Projects are to be selected based on their potential contribution to the Next Generation Internet and its key drivers for change. In the second stage, the reviewers are able to ask additional clarifying questions and make (minor) suggestions to improve the quality and impact of the project.

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