Restack Open Call (2026-11R)
OpenDescription
Open Internet Stack is an initiative by the European Commission to work towards an resilient operational stack of strategic technology commons worthy of trust — a stable and defendable foundation to foster healthy and strong democracies and economies, delivering the European vision of next generation digital infrastructures and connected collaborative computing networks. It aims to deliver an ecosystem of deployable, scalable, and secure technologies that allow for permissionless innovation, contribute to quality of life and deliver strategic autonomy. The goal of Restack is to help deliver, mature and scale new internet commons across the technology stack: from libre chips to middleware without a vendor lock-in, from productivity tools to 'local-first' infrastructure — and of course the end user applications needed to consume those networked services. We restack because there is no other viable way. If we want to reclaim digital self-sustainability and yield the full benefits from technology as a society, we need to have an entire stack that is open from the ground up — period. Only though enough critical mass of shared building blocks and collective pooling of resources and capabilities will our governments, businesses and civil society be able to count on digital security and long term operational availability — and steer towards more fair, innovative economies and societies. And there is no time to waste. This is why we invite your contribution to help us reshape the state of play, and together create an open, trustworthy and reliable internet for all. This is your opportunity to make a real difference. In order to enable you to make such contributions, we will award small to medium-size R&D grants towards solutions that bring the next generation of mobile solutions closer. We are seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euro's — which should get you on your way. if there is proven potential, there is a possibility to subsequently scale up your project significantly. Next to financial support, we provide all kinds of help too — ranging from accessiibility scans and security audits to reproducible packaging, and from support with copyright compliance and governance to standardisation.
Beneficiary & submission
Projects can be submitted through https://NLnet.nl/propose, please check this page as well as the guide for applicants for this programme before you start writing a proposal - this might save you a lot of work.
Anyone can apply, including private individuals and organisations of any type. Project proposals should be in line with the topic of the programme and should have research and development as their primary objective. Proposals should be complete and concise (no longer than the equivalent of two pages for the main application, see the submission form). Proposals should have a clear European dimension.
Projects are scored on a 7 point scale on three criteria: technical merit (30% weight), strategic relevance to the Open Internet Stack and expected contribution to the goals of Restack (40% weight) and overall value for money (30% weight). The key objective is to deliver potential break-through contributions towards the goal of establishing a robust Open Internet Stack. 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. We are interested in improving and decoupling infrastructure layers, service management and deployment innovation as well as actual services and their client-side counterparts. Projects will need a total weighted score above 5.0 (out of 7) in order to be selected.
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 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
All scientific outcomes must be published as open access, and any novel software and hardware created is to be be published under a recognised free and open source license in its entirety.
Please note that there is a strict policy on the use of AI. In principle, AI generated proposals are not welcome. Any submission involving AI involves providing a full prompt log. All generated content should be marked as such, even if subsequently edited.
Further information
A more complete overview of the call text, proposal guidelines and an FAQ can be found on the main call page: https://NLnet.nl/restack