Restack 1st Open Call

Objectif

Today's technology is burdened with 'dark stack' components only available as volatile proprietary services, as well as with many cascading dependencies and hidden liabilities. There is also plenty of technical debt and things that were left intentionally broken. That needs to change. With Restack we build from the ground up, and accepting only the sky as the limit. What networked technology can you contribute? We are open to new ideas and innovative technologies on every layer, but also want to nurture and scale existing technologies that are still future-proof — we are interested in practical, real-world impact.

Critères d'éligibilité

There are no categorical exclusions of persons who may not receive support from Restack.

Given equal proposals, inhabitants of the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe are given priority

Project results shall always become available under a recognised free or open source license.

Technologies clés

In scope are innovations and enhancements to core internet infrastructure, alternatives to closed online technologies serving a large userbase, and devices used to run and consume these in a secure and privacy-friendly manner. This also includes full stack security, software supply chain management, reproductibility and trust enhancing technologies.

We are interested in improving and decoupling infrastructure layers, service management and deployment innovation as well as actual services and their client-side counterparts.

We stimulate the creation and use of norms and standards, as these enable interoperability and redundancy in implementation, and reduce the risk of future compromise and failure.

Typologie de consortium

We are seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 € — with the possibility to scale them up signficantly if there is proven potential. Next to financial support, we provide all kinds of practical help too — ranging from accessibility scans and security audits to reproducible packaging, and from support with copyright compliance and governance to standardisation.

The following types of activities qualify for financial support, provided they are cost effective and have a clear link to the topics directly relevant to Restack and the objectives set out in the call:
- design and development of free and open source software and open hardware
- validation or constructive inquiry into existing or novel technical solutions
- software engineering aimed at adapting to new usage areas or improving software quality
- formal security proofs, security audits, setup and design of software testing and continuous integration
- documentation for researchers, developers and end users, including educational materials
- standardisation activities, including membership fees of standards bodies
- understanding user requirements and improving usability/inclusive design
- necessary measures in support of (broad)er deployability, e.g. packaging
- scientific research
- participation in technical, developer and community events like hackathons, IETF, W3C, RIPE meetings, FOSDEM, etc. (admission fee, travel and subsistence costs)
- other activities that are relevant to adhering to robust software development and deployment practices
- project management
- out-of-pocket costs for infrastructure essential to achieving the above

A first proposal MAY request a grant allocation up to 50 kEuro. In other words, a proposal larger than 50 kEuro MUST be preceded by one or more smaller projects within Restack or equivalent (such as one of the NGI programmes) , which MUST have been successfully concluded before a new project can be granted.

The maximum amount to be granted per proposal is 150 kEuro.