Open internet discourse is part of the future of open collaboration and open discussion, forming a federated safe space for what used to be called social networking. The Fediverse, funded by the NGI program as an implementation of such a federated space, is already taking shape and approaching ten million users. It has special safeguards for marginalized and oppressed groups in our global society. This NGI technology is mature enough to be joined by older institutions and organizations, many tech-savvy media outlets and public institutions have already joined [^adoption]. But for wider adoption the Fediverse needs to be supported by dedicated and knowledgeable support organisations, for which this project will lay the groundwork in the form of reproducible deployment configurations, how-to documents, cookbooks, playbooks and descriptions of success stories. Not only will we create a complete script for support organisations that want to _host_ Fediverse services and other open discussion tools on how to deploy them on their infrastructure, we will also onboard several public organisations that want to _use_ these services to show-case, and to gain and document experience on do's and don'ts. After all, public communication infrastructure, even though very practical, isn't easy to do and this project is accordingly about creating a simple to use, very practical and safe environment to communicate, assembling various powerful components that NGI and others have built into unified end-to-end services. This is where we can make a difference, especially in contrast to existing centralized solutions owned by Big Tech.

The objective of EuWireless proposal is to develop the design of the first pan-European infrastructure to support research in mobile communication networks using regulated spectrum, with the goal of contributing to keep Europe’s leadership in mobile communication technologies. The output of the project will be a complete design report addressing the pan-European operator, the regulatory aspects, the business model, the technical solutions and the roadmap for implementation of the proposed infrastructure, as well as prototypes that confirm its feasibility.

Under the new 72-month GN5 Framework Partnership Agreement in Horizon Europe (GN5-FPA), this proposal responds to Horizon Europe Call HORIZON-INFRA-2021-NET-01-SGA-2 (Work Programme ’21-22 Other Actions: 2. SGA for investments on International connectivity and collaboration), received 1 February 2022. GN5-IC1 sets out a new plan and implementation for the first phase of a new intercontinental connectivity investment programme, meeting the huge growth in network capacity demands and leading the network through a paradigm shift in the digital science and computational infrastructures in the next 10 to 15 years. It builds on the successful and relevant experience in planning and procuring and introducing into operation direct intercontinental links, such as BELLA S1, as well as a number of other existing bilateral and reciprocal arrangements for operational links negotiated with other intercontinental partners. This project will help ensure sufficient capacity is put in place through procurements and implementations of links during the project term or through setting a roadmap for future investments beyond this timeframe. The GÉANT Consortium has a long established and successful track record in securing long-term intercontinental network connectivity, interconnecting with an increasing number of gateways in the network, in co-ordination with global peers. Applying proven skills and expertise, GÉANT is well placed to maximise the value of the links to be procured, with innovative contracts and to secure reciprocal global peering contributions to increase the impact of the resources available in GN5-IC1.