In 2022, SourceHut was selected for funding from the European Union’s NGI fund. This fund has been used to provide small grants to many free software projects since 2020, and the impact of these grants has been enormous. In SourceHut’s case, the grant is directly to thank for our comprehensive GraphQL APIs, which both underpins SourceHut’s internal communication needs and makes this platform possible, and are depended on by our users to achieve our goals of personal data ownership and platform independence.
Thanks to NGI funding, Europe has been the spearhead of innovation in free software over the past four years. There are hundreds of free software projects which can thank this fund for their success, projects which would not have been possible without it – and because of this fund, the technology they provide is available in the commons, for the benefit of all. The NGI fund has enormously strengthened Europe’s technology stance and drawn the continent out as one of the best, if not the best, places to innovate in free software and support internet and technology resilience, security, sovereignty, and innovation. These goals cannot be achieved any other way – many of the projects that benefit from NGI funding cannot reasonably find their way without a funding source like this.
Moreover, the fund has been shown to be an incredibly efficient way of spending towards innovation. The NGI grants punch well above their weight. We have seen NGI grants in the tens of thousands accomplish goals which the commercial sector demands tens of millions in investments to achieve, and the NGI-funding outcomes are placed into the commons and support the public interest – something private funding cannot do. I can think of no better example of efficient public spending on innovation than the NGI fund: the returns on a small NGI investment are huge.
So, it was to our dismay to learn that the European Commission has not included the NGI program in its Horizon Europe working draft for funding programs in 2025. SourceHut joins an open letter to the European Commission calling for them to reconsider. If anything, it is not only important but urgent that the commission expands the NGI program – not shut it down. The NGI program is a cornerstone of Europe’s future in technology and innovation, and it embodies the European commmunity’s values in a way we must honor and uphold.
We urge the commission to reconsider.
– SourceHut