Restack Open Call (2026-11R)

Open Internet Stack is an initiative by the European Commission to work towards an resilient operational stack of strategic technology commons worthy of trust — a stable and defendable foundation to foster healthy and strong democracies and economies, delivering the European vision of next generation digital infrastructures and connected collaborative computing networks. It aims to deliver an ecosystem of deployable, scalable, and secure technologies that allow for permissionless innovation, contribute to quality of life and deliver strategic autonomy.

The goal of Restack is to help deliver, mature and scale new internet commons across the technology stack: from libre chips to middleware without a vendor lock-in, from productivity tools to 'local-first' infrastructure — and of course the end user applications needed to consume those networked services. We restack because there is no other viable way. If we want to reclaim digital self-sustainability and yield the full benefits from technology as a society, we need to have an entire stack that is open from the ground up — period.

Only though enough critical mass of shared building blocks and collective pooling of resources and capabilities will our governments, businesses and civil society be able to count on digital security and long term operational availability — and steer towards more fair, innovative economies and societies. And there is no time to waste. This is why we invite your contribution to help us reshape the state of play, and together create an open, trustworthy and reliable internet for all.

This is your opportunity to make a real difference. In order to enable you to make such contributions, we will award small to medium-size R&D grants towards solutions that bring the next generation of mobile solutions closer. We are seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euro's — which should get you on your way. if there is proven potential, there is a possibility to subsequently scale up your project significantly. Next to financial support, we provide all kinds of help too — ranging from accessiibility scans and security audits to reproducible packaging, and from support with copyright compliance and governance to standardisation.

A more complete overview of the call text, proposal guidelines and an FAQ can be found on the main call page: https://NLnet.nl/restack