2025 NLnet NGI Zero Commons Fund

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The NLnet Commons Fund supports research and development of open-source projects that advance a next-generation public-interest internet. I am exploring if we are submitting one or two separate proposals for OpenRefine at EUR 50 000 each. Applications are due by August 1 2025, which does not give us a lot of time to prepare. We are seeking letters of support from EU-based institutions (details below).

Project 1. Native In-App Reconciliation of Arbitrary Local Data Sets

This proposal addresses the goal post Native In-App Reconciliation of Arbitrary Local Data Sets. It would align closely with the fund’s objective to democratize access to data and promote decentralization.

We can build on the existing grant application 2025 Research Software Maintenance Fund.

Project 2. Extension Manager for OpenRefine Plugins

This proposal targets the goal post Better support for OpenRefine extensions. I suggest we limit the scope to the extension manager itself, including its user interface and registration mechanism for plugins. We will not include a refactoring of the extension API.

The application can draw on the discussion thread Improving the UX of extension install, and Butterfly and the previous grant applications 2024 DEF and 2023 Mozilla Infrastructure Fund.

@abbe98 given your prior work on the extension manager would you be interested in collaborating on this proposal?

3. Eligibility: Demonstrating the European Dimension

Non-EU organizations may apply if they can demonstrate a European dimension (see Can anyone in the whole world submit in the FAQ). To meet this requirement, I would like to gather letters of support from EU-based institutions that can see benefit from the proposed project.

If you work at a European-based organization (such as a university, GALM, or newsroom) and can help secure a letter of support, please let me know. Maybe @lozanaross at NFDI, @Andre_Costa at Wikimedia Sweden or @b2m at LABW could help?

I am looking for your feedback regarding which project you'd like to see happen and how we can approach this grant application.

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I would be more than happy to do so!

I had completely missed this application, if the NLnet application is unsuccessful I would be more than happy to sponsor work in this area if there is a contributor willing to pick it up.

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On it... let's also ping @Michael_Markert for this.

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I think my institution, the SODa Center for Data Competencies in University Collections –
funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research –, would be happy to provide a LOS/LOI. Reconciliation on local vocabularies is something many curators and researches in collections would like to have available via (OpenRefine-)GUI.

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For the support letter, we can help from https://laoficinacultural.org/.

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I will look into a LoS from hbz. If anybody has already drafted a LoS, I'd be happy if you posted it here. This will make it easier for other to follow suit.

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Thank you all for your interest and support. I will create a Google Document by the end of the week to begin drafting both applications and preparing a template letter of support.

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@Martin - great, happy to support, can provide either LoS from NFDI4Culture or TIB, or both.

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Hello,

The draft document is available here for comments and suggestions.

I haven't started to draft the proposal regarding the Native In-App Reconciliation of Arbitrary Local Data Sets project, as we are waiting for an update on the eligibility of the 2025 Research Software Maintenance Fund in the coming days.