Programme Thesis
NGI Zero Discovery funds individual researchers and small teams to develop open-source innovations that advance search and discovery on the internet, with a broader mission to build a more secure, private, and accessible Next Generation Internet. It exists to provide agile, low-threshold funding for ideas that empower users and control technology, emphasizing free/libre/open source licensing and high standards in security, privacy, and accessibility.
Selection Criteria
- Open source licensing (must be free/libre/open source)
- Relevance to search & discovery infrastructure (broadly interpreted, including tools that enable discovery of data, knowledge, or services)
- Technical merit and innovation
- Feasibility and frugal budget (up to €50,000)
- Alignment with NGI values: security, privacy, accessibility, standardization
- Potential for broader reuse and community benefit
- Applicant's capability and track record (open source contributions, research output)
- No economic conflicts of interest for review committee members
Past Winners / Cohort Profiles
Past winners include individual developers and small teams working on decentralized search engines, privacy-preserving discovery tools, open-source web crawlers, federated indexing systems, and accessibility-focused search interfaces. Named examples are not provided on the page, but typical archetypes are independent open-source contributors, academic researchers building prototype tools, and small nonprofits creating infrastructure for niche communities.
Ideal Candidate Fingerprint
An independent developer or small team with a proven open-source track record, proposing a novel tool or platform that improves how users find, access, or verify information online. The ideal applicant demonstrates technical depth, a clear commitment to free/libre/open source principles, and a project that directly addresses search/discovery gaps while upholding NGI's values of security, privacy, and accessibility.
Recommended Framing
Eniola should frame the CCT model and its associated open-source simulation code (e.g., ODE solvers, Bayesian calibration pipelines) as a reusable open science infrastructure tool for discovering pharmacological mechanisms in addiction neuroscience. Emphasize that the software is fully open source, modular, and designed for community reuse, enabling other researchers to explore reward-memory encoding without proprietary dependencies—directly aligning with NGI Zero's mission to empower users and control technology, even though the domain is not traditional web search.
Watch Out
The programme's primary focus on search & discovery infrastructure may be a stretch for neuroscience/pharmacology modeling, requiring careful framing to show relevance. Eniola is an independent researcher without a formal PhD, which may be a disadvantage if reviewers prioritize academic credentials, though the programme explicitly targets individuals and small teams. The budget request must be frugal (up to €50,000) and justified for open-source development, not research per se.