Next Generation Internet: 62 new projects contribute to digital commons

This piece was originally published at nlnet.nl

NLnet Foundation announces 62 new projects for the NGI Zero Commons Fund – the largest round of the programme yet. We congratulate the selected projects and look forward to the new capabilities these will bring to society. There were many more applications, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all applicants for their contributions towards digital commons and an open, trustworthy and more resilient internet.

From browser-based cellular networking to quantum-safe cryptography

The internet is the most complex technical and social infrastructure the world has seen yet. Preserving the public nature of the internet is not a given. Free and open source technologies, open standards, open hardware and open data help to strenghten the open web and the open internet. The projects selected by NLnet all contribute in their own way to this important goal, and will empower end users and the community at large on different layers of the stack. For example, there are people working a browser controlled ad hoc cellular network (Wsdr) which can be used to create small mobile networks where they are needed. The open hardware security key Nitrokey is aiming for formal certification of their implementation of the FIDO2 standard, and will be adding encrypted storage capabilities. There are also more applied technologies: the high end open hardware microscope OpenFlexure will enable among others e-health use cases such as telepathology, allowing medical professionals to work together to help people in more remote areas.

While on the topic of microscopic structures: there are again a number of projects which will be working on libre silicon and trustworthy hardware. This ranges from pad cell generators, automatic generation of analog and mixed Integrated Circuits and timing aware netlist optimisation with Logic Equivalence Checking to entire toolchains for VLSI design – and even concrete libre chip designs with proof of No Spectre bugs. There will also be efforts on high-end open hardware to analyse energy consumption (OpenEPT, BB3-CM5), creative tools for programmable PCB creation and collaborative computer assisted design (CAD).

Decentralised social media and professional print

Thanks to the W3C ActivityPub standard, an increasing amount of applications allow users to benefit from social interaction without having to register accounts everywhere, or having to worry about privacy invasive practices from proprietary social networks. The standard is used in forum tools, music sharing, creating and sharing 3D models, organising events and Polls in the Fediverse. The project Mastodon for institutions is adding features for large, institutional instances of Mastodon. Traditional media are not forgotten and can benefit from the work on modern type-setting tools that can create high quality print media (Typst, Vivliostyle).

And much more

This was just a small sample of the wide range of important contributions that will be worked on – there is much more, across the entire technology stack and beyond, from a low-level 8 bit compiler via wifi mapping and P2P mesh networks to cross-language symbolic execution via WASM and tools to collaboratively track track terms and conditions of online services and consumer product prices. Read on to meet all 62 projects selected in this funding round, or check out the complete overview of projects currently funded by NLnet.

If you applied for a grant

This is the selection for the December call of the NGI Zero Commons Fund fund only. We always inform all applicants about the outcome of the review ahead of the public announcement, whether they are selected or not. If you have not heard anything, you probably applied to a later call or a different fund that is still under review.

Meet the new projects!

Trustworthy hardware and manufacturing

• BB3-CM5 — Modular OSHW test & measurement equipment
• CARGO — Automatic Generation of Analog + Mixed Integrated Circuits with Coriolis
• Circuit Painter — Creative tool for programmable PCB creation
• Fully Open Chip Design — Silicon-proven toolchain for VLSI design
• Lens/FreeCAD integration — Collaborate on parametric CAD Models for hardware design
• Libre-Chip CPU with proof of No Spectre bugs — Open Hardware high performance CPU with speculative execution
• LibreSilicon: Pad Cell Generator — Custom pad cells for integrated chip layout generation
• Nitrokey 3 FIDO2 Level 2 — Achieve formal certification for open hardware security key
• Nitrokey 3 Storage — Add encrypted storage capabilities to Nitrokey 3
• OpenEPT Ecosystem — High-end open hardware to analyse energy consumption
• OpenFlexure Microscope — Enabling telepathology with open hardware high end microscopes
• Timing Modeling and Integrated Verification in Naja — iming aware netlist optimisation with Logic Equivalence Checking
• Verilog-AMS in Gnucap — Improve performance and Verilog-AMS coverage in Gnucap
• Wsdr — Cloud-based Cellular Network in a Browser

Network infrastructure incl. routing, P2P and VPN

• Configurable Communication Channels for qaul — Distributed messaging over verifiable P2P channels
• DjNRO upgrade and wifi mapping — Find nearby wifi access points in federated wifi communities
• Librecast Studio — Community platform for multimedia collaboration and events
• Waterfall — Agile framework for the development and deployment of watermarking schemes

Software engineering, protocols, interoperability, cryptography, algorithms, proofs

• Bab — Efficient proof of validity of streamed data
• embedded-cal — An embedded systems-friendly verified crypto provider
• Machine Usable Output for Sequoia — Reliable, scriptable memory-safe OpenPGP with JSON input/output
• Nitrokey 3 FIDO2 Level 2 — Achieve formal certification for open hardware security key
• Owi 2 — Cross-language symbolic execution via Wasm
• Quantum-Safe Cryptography in Sequoia PGP — Implement draft-ietf-openpgp-pqc in Sequoia PGP
• raylib — Project creator/builder + feature development for raylib graphics library
• Renderling ecosystem — Renderling
• SDCC — Modern compiler for 8-bit microcontrollers
• Serverless and Metadata Reduction for XMPP — Implement RELOAD within XMPP and reduce medata exposure
• Zosimos — GPU accellerated image buffer and compute system

Operating systems, firmware and virtualisation

• Advanced UEFI Capsule Update for coreboot with EDK II — Secure firmware updates, also via fwupd
• Capability-based security for Redox — Capsicum style cabilities in Redox
• Embeddable Common Lisp — Common Lisp for browser environments
• io_uring-like IO for Redox — Introduce ring buffers in Redox to increase I/O performance
• Kernel DMA Protection Patcher (kdmap-patcher) — Automated UEFI patching for pre-boot DMA protection
• Oils for Unix — An upgrade path for legacy shell
• Open-source firmware for modern AMD boards — Open-source firmware for modern AMD boards part 1
• Pnut — Reproducible build of GCC on POSIX shell
• Servo Editability and Interactivity Enhancements — Keyboard interaction within the Servo browser
• Wsdr — Cloud-based Cellular Network in a Browser

Measurement, monitoring, analysis and abuse handling

• Maven Heaven — Scan, review, curate and fix metadata of Java packages
• OpenEPT Ecosystem — High-end open hardware to analyse energy consumption
• T-Rust - In Rust we Trust — Scan, review, curate and fix metadata of Rust crates

Middleware and identity

• Accessible KDE File Management — Accessible file dialogs throughout KDE applications
• Building blocks for Resilient Time — Implement NTPv5 in ntpd + bootstrap procedure
• Reduced Feature-set Packet Filter — High throughput software firewall

Data and AI

• AtomicServer Local-First — AtomicServer Local-First Headless CMS
• Data Package implementation in TypeScript — Reference implementation of data definition language and data API
• FedCM for Solid — User-friendly Federated logins for Solid Community Server
• Open Prices - Scaling price collection — Crowdsourced consumer product price collection
• SolidOS — Data management tool and browser for Solid

Services + Applications (e.g. email, instant messaging, video chat, collaboration)

• AtomicServer Local-First — AtomicServer Local-First Headless CMS
• Dino — User-friendly and secure instant messaging based on XMPP
• FedCM for Solid — User-friendly Federated logins for Solid Community Server
• Flatline Server — Independent server for Signal protocol
• Flock XR — 3D visual creativity and coding tool
• Podlibre — Dedicated, customizable podcast editor
• Signature PDF — PDF editing and server-based digital signing workflow
• solidtime — Privacy-friendly time tracking for teams and individuals
• The Ultimate Bookkeeping System — Bookkeeping but in a portable, offline-first and privacy-friendly way

Vertical use cases, Search, Community

• ActivityPub Polls for WordPress — WordPress plugin for social polls
• Funkwhale Federation — Extend ActivityPub capabilities for Funkwhale
• Icosa Gallery — Community-led 3D creation and sharing tools
• Interoperability of Events in the Fediverse — A common approach to using the ActivityPub Event object type
• NodeBB context discovery — Improving safety, long-form text + threaded discussion elements
• Typst PDF Accessibility — Increase a11y of Typst's output
• Vivliostyle — Typesetting system leveraging web technologies

Still hungry for more projects? Check out the overview of all our current and recent projects.
Inspired? If you are working on a project that contributes to the Next Generation Internet you can submit a proposal. The next deadline is August 1st 2025.

The NGI0 Commons fund is made possible with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology (grant agreement No. 101135429). Additional funding is made available by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).