Today the Internet is key to almost any socio-economic activity, a true value creator which reshapes economic and societal behaviours. This trend is irreversible and in 10 years from now the Internet will be an even more indispensable motor for socio-economic activity worldwide. If Europe aims to shape this future Internet as a powerful, open, data-driven, user-centric, interoperable platform ecosystem, it must take action now.

With a fresh view, the European Commission launches a new track of future Internet research aimed at developing a next generation of the Internet enabled by key technologies and services allowing it to become an open ecosystem avoiding the dominance of a few giant economic players. This coordination and support action will prepare the conditions, mobilise the constituencies and prototype the operations of a large future Next Generation Internet initiative going beyond Horizon 2020.

Scope:

Proposals should cover one of the three bullet points (a, b or c):

a) Coordination and Support action - Identification of research topics

Design, build and apply a methodology to identify continuously those key future technologies that will support an Internet model more open and more inclusive in 10 years from now. For this:

• Perform a portfolio analysis, coverage, mapping and gap analysis of ongoing and emerging research topics in future Internet.
• Identify those key future Internet technologies, i.e. the game-changers for an Internet in 2025, and deduct specific technology roadmaps.
• Analysis programmes and developments in Member States and Associated Countries, and activities in international partner countries.

b) Coordination and Support action - Dynamic and continuous consultation

Build an open, dynamic and continuous consultation process which engages all relevant stakeholders in a long-term and multi-disciplinary fashion. For this include:

• The scientific community and outstanding scientists who lead the Internet technology research in Europe.
• Identifying the high-tech startup community, its competences and capacity, i.e. the relevant specific actors.
• Member States and Associated Countries along with national R&I funding bodies to shape the NGI in a fully synergetic way.
• The aspect that the NGI flagship is part of a global race towards mastering the future Internet.
• The benefits from ongoing research and policy activities, notably the roadmap-based research ongoing in areas such as 5G, IoT, cloud, data and cybersecurity.

c) Coordination and Support action - A programme shape for of a Next Generation Internet initiative.

This initiative will mobilise the best researchers and focus on a continuous scouting of developments with the potential to change the way the Internet is operated, often by an opportunistic and multidisciplinary combination of advances. For this:

• Identify and validate the constituent basic elements for a large Next Generation Internet flagship which includes characteristics such as speed and adaptability.
• Build a strong and fluid link and a feedback loop between short and long-term research to strengthen Europe’s capacity to actually bring advanced technology to the market.
• Involve in a practical way new players and set a prototype interaction between the scientific community and today’s best Internet innovators, the startups and SMEs.
• Make use of the research topics identified under (a) and the consultation and community identified under (b).
• Promote the notion of a European Next Generation Internet ecosystem by building a community among academia, researchers, startups, SMEs and corporates involved.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about 0.7 million would allow each bullet point (a, b and c) to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. No more than one action per bullet point will be funded.

Expected Impact:

• Establish the base for a large scale research flagship on the Next Generation Internet.
• Prototype and validate new processes for research and innovation on Next Generation Internet.
• Mobilise the new players indispensable for agile research on the Next Generation Internet, notably leading individual or teams of researchers and high tech startups.
• Build an active, visible and agile ecosystem comprising all relevant stakeholders for making the Next Generation Internet flagship a success.
• Build a dynamic and growing knowledge base of technological trends, initiatives and key players in the area of Next Generation Internet.

Please read carefully all provisions below before the preparation of your application.

1. List of countries and applicable rules for funding: described in part A of the General Annexes of the General Work Programme.
   Note also that a number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects. See the information in the Online Manual.
    
2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions: described in part B and C of the General Annexes of the General Work Programme. 
   
   Proposal page limits and layout: Please refer to Part B of the standard proposal template.
    
3. Evaluation
   
   3.1  Evaluation criteria and procedure, scoring and threshold: described in part H of the General Annexes of the General Work Programme.
   
   3.2 Submission and evaluation process: Guide to the submission and evaluation process.
      
4. Indicative timetable for evaluation and grant agreement:
   
   Information on the outcome of single-stage evaluation: maximum 5 months from the deadline for submission.
   Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.
    
5. Provisions, proposal templates and evaluation forms for the type(s) of action(s) under this topic:
   
   Coordination and Support Action:
   
   Specific provisions and funding rates
   Proposal templates are available after entering the submission tool below.
   Standard evaluation form
   H2020 General MGA -Multi-Beneficiary
   Annotated Grant Agreement
    
6. Additional provisions:
   
   Horizon 2020 budget flexibility
   Classified information.
    
7. Open access must be granted to all scientific publications resulting from Horizon 2020 actions, and proposals must refer to measures envisaged. Where relevant, proposals should also provide information on how the participants will manage the research data generated and/or collected during the project, such as details on what types of data the project will generate, whether and how this data will be exploited or made accessible for verification and re-use, and how it will be curated and preserved.
   
   This topic participates per default in the open access to research data pilot which aims to improve and maximise access to and re-use of research data generated by projects:
   
   - The pilot applies to the data needed to validate the results presented in scientific publications. Additionally, projects can choose to make other data available for open access and need to describe their approach in a Data Management Plan (to be provided within six months after the project start).
   
   - Note that the evaluation phase proposals will not be evaluated more favourably because they are part of the Pilot, and will not be penalised for opting out of the Pilot.
   
   - Projects can at any stage opt-out of the pilot.
   
   The legal requirements for projects participating in this pilot are in the article 29.3 of the Model Grant Agreement.
   Further information on the Open Research Data Pilot is made available in the H2020 Online Manual.
    
8. Additional documents:
   
   H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Introduction
   H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Introduction to Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEITs)
   H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Information and communication technologies (ICT)
   H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Dissemination, Exploitation and Evaluation
   H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: General Annexes
   
   Legal basis: Horizon 2020 - Regulation of Establishment
   Legal basis: Euratom Horizon 2020 - Regulation of Establishment
   Legal basis: Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation
   Legal basis: Horizon 2020 Specific Programme

Source: Participant Portal