LEDGER closed its 3rd Open Call on the 3rd of March, congratulations to all the applicants on their work and dedication in submitting their projects to the LEDGER 3rd Open Call.

Finally, there have been 99 applications submitted, from 26 countries!

The evaluation process has already started and all the updates regarding, will be timely published.

As you may know, LEDGER is looking for projects that will change the Internet for good, for projects that are human-centric and built with the purpose of improving citizens life.

Good luck to all the applicants!

The EU-funded Venture Builder, whose first 2 cohorts are already making strides towards transforming decentralised data governance in Europe, will invest up to €150K equity-free in the projects selected through its third and last Open Call. 

 Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, 22nd December 2020

 LEDGER, the pan-European acceleration program for human-centric solutions, has kicked off its third open call today. This third and final edition, an advanced version in comparison to the previous two open calls, is aimed at already registered entities such as SMEs, Research Organizations, NGOs or Foundations, who are building innovative projects with a blockchain and other DLT supported solutions for data governance at their core. 

 The final 9 selected teams will access a Venture Builder programme of 6 months receiving DLT software support and training, technological and business mentoring and other enabling benefits in addition to up to €150.000 equity-free funding.

 Applications will be accepted from 22nd of December 2020 at 12:00 CET until 22nd of February 2021 at 18:00 CET.

 Granted by the European Commission (EC) under the Next Generation Internet initiative, 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 150.000 euros to each of the selected projects building decentralised solutions, where citizens retain control over their data”, declared Xabier Chao, CIO at FundingBox (the company leading the consortium), at the start of the acceleration project, whose first cohort of 15 projects has already successfully concluded the programme and whose second cohort of 9 projects is already well underway.  

 LEDGER’s first 16 projects in July 2019 at the Welcome Bootcamp in Amsterdam 

 We are looking for entities that want to shift data management, leveraging on decentralised technologies (such as blockchain, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and/or peer-to-peer), AI or IoT, to address privacy-by-design, reliability, trustworthiness and openness to build human-centric solutions.

 Selected projects will develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) where privacy-by-design, openness and data governance are at the core of their value proposition.

 LEDGER is a consortium led by FundingBox (Poland, Spain and Denmark) in partnership with Dyne (Netherlands) and Blumorpho (France and Germany). The project is part of the EC’s Next Generation Internet initiative:

 “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).

 Related links:

http://ledgerproject.eu

https://ledger-3rd-open-call.fundingbox.com/ 

https://fundingbox.com/c/ledger
https://twitter.com/LedgerEu 

Contact points for LEDGER:

Thomas Wilczek: thomas@fundingbox.com 

Andrea D’Intino: andrea@dyne.org

Thomas Shamuyarira: shamuyarira@blumorpho.com   

LEDGER’s second cohort in alphabetical order:  

1. Backme.org – Make content creators, journalists and artists become independent.
2. ConDIDI – Full lifecycle decentralized conference participant management
3. Distributed Secure Smart Farming Log (DISEMIN) – A digital log of sensor data and human input, controlled by the farmer who decides whom they will share their data with.
4. Eschooltul – Organisational school online platform with Blockchain
5. Gene Coop – Human genomic data cooperative for and by citizens to support health research and responsible and inclusive governance of data.
6. Global Passport Project – Addressing migration processes and human rights abuses through a blockchain-based platform to promote participatory democracy for migrants.
7. LiV – Web-platform built on blockchain and AI that democratises access to inheritance planning and succession.
8. Orvium – Open access publishing platform created for, and by, researchers that returns the benefits of science to society.
9. Smart Consent – A system designed for management of the medical informed consent, improving the communication physician-patient using audiovisual technology and Blockchain security, towards paperless for health management. 

1. LEDGER is part of the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative aiming to shape the future Internet as an interoperable platform ecosystem that embodies the values that Europe holds dear: openness, inclusivity, transparency, privacy, cooperation, and protection of data.

   To learn more about LEDGER, and to connect, find funding opportunities, partners and news about The Venture Builder Programme, please join the LEDGER Community.

   @LedgerEu @NGI4eu
   #NGI #blockchain #decentralised #privacybydesign

An explanation on the selection process after the Review meeting with the European Commission.

Dear LEDGER Community,

Following the second Jury Day session, we have received some emails questioning the evaluation and selection process to enter the second round of LEDGER. We understand that the selection process is complex and that some of our messages posted on the community pages could have been adding to that confusion; however, we would like to assure you that the whole evaluation process was in line with the Guide for Applicants and H2020 standards. All decisions were taken in the interest of the applicants and in line with the LEDGER Project goals. As stated in the Open Call package of documents, LEDGER aims to select 16 teams of human-centric innovators to develop Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and services […]. based in Privacy-by-design concepts […].

The selection of new beneficiaries followed a three-stage process as described in the Description of Work of our contract with the EC. First, an ‘External Committee’ shortlisted the eligible candidates. Second, the ‘Evaluation Committee’ selected from the shortlist the projects that went to the Jury Day. Third, the ‘Selection Committee’ after hearing the candidates at the Jury Day selected the 16 best proposals.

In the second Open Call, based on a shortlist defined by the External Evaluators, the Evaluation committee selected an initial batch of 33 proposals to pass to pitch to the Selection Committee on a Jury Day. As the Selection Committee could not find 16 proposals among them that could be funded (according to the pre-defined evaluation criteria for the Jury Day), the Evaluation Committee selected a second batch of 30 additional proposals (from the shortlist defined by the External Evaluators), that were then interviewed on a second Jury Day, and that were scored according to the same pre-defined criteria used for the first Jury Day. Among these two batches of 63 proposals invited to pitch, the Selection Committee found 16 proposals fully complying with the pre-defined scoring and area coverage requirements, which were then selected for funding. The treatment given to the proposals was the same during the two Jury Days, and no additional criterion (e.g. “human-centricity”) was used in this selection.

The whole process was recently discussed with the European Commission, which has analysed it in detail and suggested to issue this clarification.

All teams will receive individual feedback as soon as possible and we count on your participation in future similar NGI initiatives.