A study has been published evaluating the impact of the Next Generation Internet initaitive projects based on various criteria such as alignment with EU Digital rights, enabling EU legislation, impact on standardisation, provision of alternative solutions, and sustainability.
The study indicates that the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative has had a significant impact in shaping a sustainable, sovereign Open-Source tech landscape in Europe that aligns with EU policies and values.
It also indicates that the projects funded by the initiative prioritise the rights of individuals, promote freedom of choice, enhance safety and security, promote sustainability, and foster active participation in the digital public space.
Furthermore, the study found that NGI projects contribute to enabling a range of EU legislation, with a focus on supporting general data protection regulation (GDPR) compliance, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Market Act (DMA), the Cyber Resilience Act, EU digital identity initiatives, ensuring freedom of choice online, and supporting the concept of digital commons.
Moreover, NGI projects have contributed to the standardisation of various protocols and standards aimed at enhancing privacy, security, interoperability, and functionality in the digital landscape.
In parallel, with a portfolio encompassing over 1 000 projects and approximately 80 000 individuals actively contributing to NGI projects in software forges, the NGI initiative fosters a skilled community of ICT developers in Europe and plays a pivotal role in advancing digital skills, fostering innovation, and enhancing European competitiveness and growth.
According to the study, the NGI initiative has fostered innovation, interoperability, and integration into existing initiatives, and the establishment of sustainable structures, ultimately contributing to the growth and development of the internet’s Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) community.
The initiative has also focused on improving the auditability, predictability, and resilience of the Open-Source software supply chain.
The results of this study provide a comprehensive overview of the NGI portfolio, analysing its performance against these benchmarking criteria as well as its technological building blocks with regards to the Web 4.0.
The findings aim to inform policy-making decisions and shaping the future work programme, including for considerations for areas such as digital commons and the development of Web 4.0.
Background
The Next Generation Initiative (NGI) initiative aims to put in place the key technological building blocks of tomorrow’s Internet and to shape the future Internet as an interoperable platform ecosystem that embodies the values that Europe holds dear: openness, inclusivity, transparency, privacy, cooperation, and protection of data.
The goal is to empower users with the freedom of choice among a range of free and open-source decentralised digital solutions. To this end, NGI provides financial support to grass-root projects covering all layers of the Internet: from open hardware, networking and transport technologies, firmware, operating systems and virtualisation, electronic identities and middleware, decentralised ledgers, software productivity tools, traffic supervision tools, up to over-the-top internet and vertical applications.
The NGI program launched its support to Internet innovators in 2019, mobilizing about €140 million over five years and supporting more than 1 000 projects.