Next Generation Internet International Collaboration - USA (RIA) -

Expected Outcome

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Supporting the EU internet policy objectives by sharing the EU vision and values with international partners, and forging bonds through concrete collaborations.
• Reinforced collaboration and increased synergies between the Next Generation Internet (NGI) and the Internet programmes of the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
• Enhanced EU-US cooperation in the development of Next Generation Internet technologies, services and standards. Developing interoperable solutions and joint demonstrators, contributions to standards
• A transatlantic ecosystem of researchers, open source developers, high-tech startups / SMEs and Internet related communities collaborating on the evolution of the Internet according to a human-centric approach.
• Generate new business opportunities for European Internet innovators based on decentralised technologies and open source.

Scope

The aim of the topic is to reinforce EU-US cooperation in the area of Next Generation Internet, and to establish a continuous dialogue among the actors involved in the US and EU research and innovation programmes. This will be achieved through the implementation of R&I projects between European NGI researchers and innovators, and entities participating in Internet related projects funded by NSF

Proposals should organise open calls for third party projects involving EU teams together with NSF-funded US teams on emerging topics for the EU Next Generation Internet and corresponding US programmes. The thematic focus should be on trust and privacy enhancing technologies, data sharing and portability, sustainable and climate-friendly internet, electronic identities, internet architecture renovation and decentralised technologies. The third party projects should focus on research leading to advanced technology development, and may include joint demonstrators and joint contributions to standards.

The proposal should support open source software and open hardware design. Applicants are encouraged to support, open access to data, access to testing and operational infrastructures as well as an IPR regime ensuring lasting impact and reusability of results.

Proposals should implement three open calls and should make provisions for the coordination with NSF of these open calls in terms of scope, proposals submission and selection, as well as implementation of the third party projects. The details should be agreed with NSF prior to the publication of the open calls.

Proposals should make explicit the intervention logic for the area, their capacity to attract relevant organisations both in the EU and the USA, as well as their expertise and capacity in managing the full life-cycle of the open calls transparently and efficiently.

Financial support to third parties

Proposals should foresee financial support to third party projects that will contribute to enhancing EU cooperation with the USA in the development of Next Generation Internet technologies and services. Only organisations established in the EU Member States and Associated Countries should be eligible for European Commission funding through financial support to third parties.

The Commission considers that proposals with an overall duration of typically 48 months would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately, while allowing the implementation of three open calls for third party projects. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other durations. For ensuring focused effort, third parties should be funded through projects typically of EUR 150 000, with indicative duration of 18 months.

In this topic, the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

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