Once again, the NGI community will be strongly represented at FOSDEM 2026, the world’s largest gathering of Free and Open Source Software community. Taking place on 31 January – 1 February 2026 at the ULB Solbosch Campus in Brussels, FOSDEM remains a key meeting point for developers, researchers, maintainers, policymakers, and digital commons builders from across the globe.
NGI-related projects, contributors, and partners will be present everywhere: from the main keynote to devrooms, BoFs, stands, and fringe events. All in all, around 100 interventions across 14 devrooms are linked to NGI-funded projects, NGI Zero initiatives, or the wider NGI ecosystem.
Opening the Conference: NGI on the Main Stage
This year’s FOSDEM plenary will be opened by Michiel Leenaars, Director of Strategy at NLnet. His keynote, “FOSS in times of war, scarcity and (adversarial) AI”, sets the tone for the weekend by tackling one of the most pressing questions facing the open source community today. The keynote reflects NGI’s broader mission: safeguarding an open, resilient, and trustworthy internet stack under rapidly changing global conditions.
Devrooms: Where NGI Is Everywhere at Once
With 14 devrooms featuring a high density of NGI Zero–related talks, FOSDEM 2026 will once again feel like a distributed NGI forum. Topics range from federated social networks, local-first software, and modern email, to SBOMs and software supply chains, declarative computing, open hardware, policy and regulation, and digital sovereignty.
For the second year in a row, NGI partners are co-organising the Funding FOSS devroom, together with Free Software Foundation Europe, Linux Foundation Europe, Prototype Fund, and the Sovereign Tech Agency. The devroom brings together developers, funders, policymakers, and institutions to explore sustainable funding models for FOSS—an issue at the heart of NGI’s long-term vision.
BoFs: Meet the NGI Community in Person
NGI is also hosting two Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions, designed for informal exchange and direct conversation:
- NGI Zero Network Meetup (Saturday, 31 January, 12:00–13:00 CET, K.4.401): A meet-and-greet for current and future NGI Zero participants, as well as anyone curious about the ecosystem.
- NLnet Office Hour (Sunday, 1 February, 12:00–13:00 CET, K.4.401): An open session to discuss funding opportunities, project ideas, lessons learned, or simply to say hello to the NLnet team.
Earlier on Saturday, the BoF slot also features a European Commission session on upcoming Open Internet Stack calls, presenting Horizon Europe topics linked to the successor programme to NGI, with €41.3M available for applicants.
Talks, Stands, and a Whole Weekend of NGI
From email security and reproducible builds to fediverse governance, open hardware, mesh networking, and collaborative editing, NGI-related speakers will be presenting throughout both days. In parallel, many NGI-supported projects can be found at FOSDEM stands, including communities around Forgejo, Matrix, Mastodon, Nextcloud, KDE, GNOME, LibreOffice, Tor, Qubes OS, Software Heritage, and many more.
Beyond the main conference, NGI projects are also active in the FOSDEM Fringe, with satellite events such as GUIX Days, FreeCAD Day, and workshops on open source license and security compliance.
See You in Brussels
FOSDEM 2026 once again shows how deeply NGI is woven into the fabric of the European and global FOSS ecosystem. Whether you’re attending a keynote, hopping between devrooms, collecting hex stickers, or joining a BoF, chances are you’ll cross paths with NGI at every turn.
The NGI community will once again be everywhere at FOSDEM 2026! See you in Brussels!