LEDGER’s 2nd Open Call looks for 16 decentralised human-centric technology solutions to join its Venture Builder and access up to €200k equity-free!
The EU-funded acceleration project, whose first Venture Builder is already making strides towards transforming digital governance in Europe, is now looking for the next group of developers, researchers and entrepreneurs to apply for their 2nd Open Call.
LEDGER, the pan-European acceleration program for human-centric solutions, has kicked off its second open call today, aimed at innovative projects building blockchain and other DLT supported solutions for data governance.
The final 16 selected teams will access a Venture Builder programme of 12 months receiving DLT software support and training, technological and business mentoring and other enabling benefits besides of up to €200.000 equity-free funding.
Applications will be accepted until Friday, 31st of January 2020 at 18:00 CET.
Granted by the European Commission (EC) and distributing €3,2 millions in this open call, the programme aims at making data a common good, owned by citizens, where the wealth created by data-driven platforms is equally distributed. This approach will lead towards both, a more open, robust and interoperable Internet and more supportive social innovation.
“Our venture builder will provide mentorship, guidance and direct grants of up to 200.000 euros to each of the 32 projects building decentralised solutions, where citizens retain control over their data”, declared Xabier Chao, Project Coordinator of LEDGER and CIO at FundingBox, at the start of the acceleration project, whose first cohort of 16 projects is now already well underway.
“We are focusing on 5 verticals: Health, Finance, Collaborative Economy, Public Services, and Energy”, confirmed Géraldine Andrieux, CEO of Blumorpho. The Strategic Research and Innovation work programme reflects the scope and details of the projects the programme is looking for.
“Selected teams will develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) where privacy-by-design, openness and data governance are at the core of their value proposition”, pointed out Jaromil Roio, CTO of dyne.org.
LEDGER is part of the EC’s Next Generation Internet initiative, and also aligns with European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) objectives.
“The Next Generation Internet initiative will reverse the Internet paradigm and recognise the value of humanity in technology”, said Roberto Viola, Director General of the European Commission’s DG Connect during the Digital Assembly 2018 in Sofia (Bulgaria).
So far, the European Commission has invested more than €80 million in blockchain projects for societal use. By 2020, the European Commission expects to allocate around €300 million to blockchain initiatives like LEDGER.
LEDGER is a consortium led by FundingBox (Poland, Spain and Denmark) in partnership with Dyne (Netherlands) and Blumorpho (France and Germany).
Related links: http://ledgerproject.eu