Deadline: 3 June 2020
Do you have an idea for an experimental policy intervention or practical tool that could help empower governments to build a better internet? The NGI Forward project is awarding individual grants of up to €25,000 from a total fund of €100,000 to trial bold new solutions on a local level.
Aims
- The internet can be a force for positive change in the world. But not enough is being done to tap into the great, ever-expanding potential of connected technologies. From the internet’s underlying infrastructure to the gatekeepers that decide what content is shared, power over the internet is increasingly centralised. A small number of players, representing a fraction of the world’s population and diversity, are incentivised to protect their position through behaviour that has a long-term negative impact on social trust and cohesion, competition and innovation. This means that fewer and fewer people are able to reap the full benefits of the digital economy. Fewer still believe that it works in their interest.
- There is consensus that a serious and co-ordinated response is needed to remedy the internet’s many problems, yet the tools to take effective action are not yet available. Some of these challenges require top-down interventions on the global or national level. But to make the NGI Forward a success, more action at the local level and the mobilisation of the whole innovation ecosystem is needed.
- One of the key goals of the NGI Forward project is therefore to provide a platform for policymakers, innovators and civil society to join forces and collaborate on key digital issues through collective action, knowledge-sharing and joint investment in new solutions.
Practical project design
On a more practical level, NGI asks applications to clarify the following:
- Scope: Proposals should make a convincing and realistic case for what is possible within the proposed timeline and budget. Though €25,000 is no small sum, NGI does not anticipate the budget would provide sufficient scope for substantial R&D activities (instead, they recommend trialling already existing tools) or deployment on a very large scale. Similarly, while evaluation should always be part of projects of this type, they do not expect academically rigorous experimental set-ups or evaluation frameworks. Match funding is not needed nor an award criterion, but can be a good way for projects to achieve greater scale and more ambitious goals in the long term. Applicants who intend to make their project part of a larger or co-funded piece of work should note this in their application.
- Duration: All projects need to be completed by August 2021. There is flexibility in start dates and project duration. Applications should outline their preferred timeline in their application, and note any external deadlines and dependencies that cannot be moved.
- Outputs: Explain in detail the exact outputs the project will generate (a report, a series of blogs, a prototype, a toolkit, series of workshops, etc.), and how these outputs will help disseminate learnings.
NGI is looking for:
The NGI Policy-in-Practice initiative is looking to fund a minimum of four trials that put into practice a vision for a more inclusive, resilient, democratic, sustainable and trustworthy future internet. This will be achieved by experimenting with concrete solutions in local communities, and ensuring that insights from these trials can be shared or scaled across the NGI network.
NGI will offer:
Recipients of the grants can also benefit from additional support from Nesta including guidance on effective project design, pathways to impact and communication of final results, as well as the sharing of findings among the wider NGI community.
Indicative timetable
This is intended as guidance only.
- June 3, 2020: Deadline for applications.
- June 10, 2020: Shortlisted applicants will be notified and invited to a remote interview.
- June 2020: Anticipated start date for first round of experiments*
- September 2020: Presentation of initial results during the NGI Policy Summit – projects that finish later are invited to join the second edition of the summit in 2021.
* NGI is flexible with start dates, and will agree on project timelines and milestones collaboratively. Please note that all projects need to be finalised by August 2021.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligibility: Any organisation based in the European Union or in eligible third countries can apply. Individuals are also eligible to apply, but only as part of a consortium and cannot be the project lead.
- Consortia: Applications from individual organisations are welcome, but preference goes to small consortia of 2 to 3 partners. NGI is particularly keen on collaborations between government (such as cities or regional bodies) and non-government actors (such as civil society groups or SMEs).
- Experience: While NGI welcomes consortia that involve newer or less experienced partners, the proposal overall needs to provide evidence the intended project team has the necessary resources and skills to carry out the proposed work.
Selection Criteria
Though there are no hard and fast rules of what constitutes a good application – NGI is interested in experimental approaches after all – they do specifically look for proposals that demonstrate:
- Alignment with the NGI mission: The application sets out how the proposed project helps to answer a question or trial an approach that contributes to building a more inclusive, democratic, resilient, trustworthy and sustainable future internet.
- Novelty: The project seeks to answer an under explored question, trials an experimental solution, or tests specific new use cases for a tool or intervention.
- Potential for impact: Applications provide a clear explanation of how the outcomes of the proposed work could generate a tangible impact beyond the project itself.
- Scalability and transfer ability: Applications demonstrate that the project can generate meaningful insights that are either scalable, replicable or otherwise relevant to contexts outside the project itself (particularly for other local governments and policymakers).
- Flexibility: Experimental approaches mean that failure is a possibility. A good application outlines how the project can still generate useful insights, even if outcomes are different from the ones intended.
For more information, visit https://www.nesta.org.uk/news/100000-fund-to-help-empower-governments-to-build-a-better-internet/