NGI Commons is a three-year European initiative which aims to elaborate on a long-term strategy for digital/internet commons which are critical for Europe’s sovereignty and trust, creating a more coherent European funding landscape across both public and private sectors. Digital/internet commons are a form of commons involving the distribution and communal ownership of information resources and technology.

While digital/internet commons are critical in our digital life, their importance is not fully reflected at the strategic level with little representation of the communities involved, lack of structure, gaps between grassroot commoners and top-down sovereignty policies, and a fragmented funding landscape.

The NGI Commons project was established as a response to the above-mentioned points. The project will contribute to the following outcomes expected by HORIZON-CL4-2023-HUMAN-01-04 Call: Next Generation Internet Commons Policy:

  • stronger integration of the NGI initiative and its vision and ecosystem with the digital/internet commons policies at the national and European levels,
  • a long-term strategy for digital/internet commons based on a clear mapping of existing communities of commoners and commons,
  • smooth articulation of bottom-up activities of European commoners’ communities and top-down policy priorities (e.g., reuse of commons, avoiding overlaps), and
  • a more coherent funding landscape integrating national and European dimensions from public and private sectors.