No UK small-grants vehicle for public-interest internet technology (NGI analogue)
The EU's Next Generation Internet initiative distributed around €140m to more than 1,200 projects in small, low-bureaucracy cascade grants, largely through NLnet, for privacy tech, open protocols and digital commons. The Commission then dropped NGI from the Horizon Europe 2025 work programme; its successor, Open Internet Stack, began NLnet-run calls in late 2026. UK developers had already lost easy access after Brexit, and no domestic substitute exists at the €5k to €50k grant size where most independent maintainers and public-interest tools live. UK civil-society funders explicitly treat technology as unfundable infrastructure, per Careful Industries in December 2025, and the Nesta and National Lottery digital funds have closed. Careful Industries has floated a Civic Technology Fund concept, and nobody has built it.
Small fast grants are the proven mechanism behind much of Europe's privacy and protocol innovation. With the EU spigot and UK philanthropy both closed, an entire tier of public-interest tooling now has no funder in the UK at all.
A pooled DSIT and philanthropy fund making £10k to £75k grants with NLnet-style lightweight process, aimed at privacy-enhancing tech, open protocols, accessibility and digital commons, hosted by an existing intermediary such as ODI or Nesta to avoid new-institution overhead.
// Build now: First artefact: philanthropic pilot grant round with NLnet-style process hosted at ODI/Nesta; DSIT co-funding can follow.
The EU cascade-grant spigot and UK philanthropy closed together, leaving small public-interest tooling with no domestic funder, and the NLnet model is proven and cheap to host.
claims & evidence · 4
// each factual claim in this entry, its source, and when it was last checked. Unresolved attributions are flagged rather than hidden. Challenge any of them on the thread below.
- 18.1verifiedchecked 2026-07-07The EU's Next Generation Internet initiative distributed around €140m to more than 1,200 projects in small cascade grants, largely through NLnet.
- 18.2verifiedchecked 2026-10-20The Commission dropped NGI from the Horizon Europe 2025 work programme; its successor, Open Internet Stack, began NLnet-run calls in late 2026.Updated at the October 2026 review. The UK-domestic gap stands; what UK developers can draw from the EU successor remains to be seen.
- 18.3reportedchecked 2026-07-07UK civil-society funders treat technology as unfundable infrastructure, and the Nesta and National Lottery digital funds have closed.
- 18.4verifiedchecked 2026-07-07No domestic substitute exists at the €5k to €50k grant size where most independent maintainers live.An absence claim, checked by search during the July 2026 research pass.