€1.755.000 will be distributed among up to 15 selected projects of developers, innovators, researchers, SMEs and entrepreneurs

11.01.2024 Off By Bulgarian Digital Cluster

TrustChain is a project funded by the European Commission that aims at creating a portfolio of Next Generation Internet protocols and an ecosystem of decentralised identity management software solutions that is transparent to the user, interoperable, privacy aware and regulatory compliant that can seamlessly integrate and interoperate with any of the existing decentralised applications.

Open Call #3 – Economics and Democracy – with €1.755m for applications helping to define and build mechanisms for smarter data exchange and data trading as well as innovative win-win federated business models’ open data.

What’s in it for applicants?

Grants up to €117K (equity-free)
Free access to mentoring & coaching
Visibility & promotion

TrustChain project started in January 2023 to address the inherent challenges within the current centralised Internet architecture that is not transparent to the user, does not protect the privacy-by -default and does not scale well through 5 Open Calls and an overall budget of €8,775M.

The TrustChain Open Call 3 (OC3) topic is “Economics & democracy”. Transparent decentralised decision-making and asset management is underscored. With a vision of enhancing democracy both online and beyond through decentralized markets and communities, OC3 aims to tackle challenges like rampant fraud in online transactions and the manipulation of public opinion through fake news, which poses a threat to the quality of democracy. It advocates for decentralized communities with the ability to co-decide on sensitive issues while preserving the anonymity and votes of individual members.

Who can Apply?

The target applicants of this call are developers, innovators, researchers, SMEs, and entrepreneurs working on different NGI relevant topics and application domains at the intersection between the technical field (e.g., Software Engineering, Network Security, Semantic Web, Cryptography, Blockchain, Digital Twin, Blockchain Security, Digital Identity, Blockchain Protocol), the Social sciences and Humanities (e.g., Social Innovation, not-for-profit sector, Social Entrepreneurship, public goods) as well as any others including economics, environment, art, design, which can contribute to the NGI TrustChain relevant vision.

How does it work?

The evaluation process is composed of three phases:

o Phase 1: Admissibility & eligibility check

o Phase 2: Proposals evaluation

o Phase 3: Online interviews

As part of the TrustChain action, experts in diverse fields will also provide to Third party innovators selected technology development guidance, working methodology as well as access to technical infrastructure, training in business model development and data related topics, coaching, mentoring, visibility and community building support.