The application deadline for Call #2 and Call #3 is closed.
The 8.5 Mio Euro EU project on Open Web Search had launched new third-party calls, inviting researchers, innovators and computing centres to join the quest for a new Internet Search in Europe. More information on the calls: Call #2 and Call #3.
The proceedings of the 5th International Open Search Symposium #ossym23 have been published Vol. 5 (2023): Proceedings 5th International Open Search Symposium #ossym2023, 4–6 October 2023, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland Volume five of the Proceedings of the International Open Search Symposium 2023 summarises peer-reviewed articles and research results selected and presented at the Open Search Symposium 2023. […]
9 February 2024 | OpenWebSearch.EU – a consortium of 14 research partners – is once again calling for third-party project proposals to help building an open and independent Web Index (OWI) based on European values. Researchers, innovators and data centres are invited to submit their ideas until 4th April . Successful candidates can request funding between 50,000 and 150,000 EUR.
After Call #1 in March 2023 and the resulting successful onboarding of six third-party partners in November 2023, the OpenWebSearch.EU will call for proposals again in February: Calls #2 and #3 will invite researchers, innovators and data centres to submit their applications to participate in the Open Web Search mission and receive funding for their project ideas. The calls will launch in February, applications will be accepted until April 2024.
Call #2 will particularly ask for proposals for applications of the Open Web Index. The Open WebSearch.eu project will provide access to pre-processed and indexed data in the terabyte range. Also it will deliver continuous, daily updates until the end of the project. Successful applicants should use and exploit the data provided in innovative applications scenarios or research topics.
Under this call, applicants will be able to apply for funding of between EUR 50,000.00 and EUR 100,000.00 for a funding period of up to 12 months.
Call #3 will address computing and data centers to join the OpenWebSearch.eu network of infrastructure organisations and hosting parts of the OWSAI infrastructure. The ows.eu consortium aims to on-board data centers as a proof-of-concept for the developed technology and engage in discussions on creating a sustainable future infrastructure. Called will be universities, public infrastructure providers, data centres, companies (e.g., cloud providers) or research teams with a well established infrastructure. Applicants should be capable of providing a significant extension to the current OpenWebSearch.eu data and compute infrastructure, and engaging in relevant infrastructure-oriented R&D activities.
Under call#3, applicants can request funding between 100.000,00 and 150.000,00 EUR for a funding period of up to 12 months. Major cost categories can include infrastructure costs, other costs and human resources.
More information on the calls and the call application packages will be launched in February 2024 on the third-party call landingpage.
The open calls are part of the OpenWebSearch.eu community programme, aiming to integrating new third-party project teams into the OpenWebSearch.eu landscape and future activities for sustainable Research and Development. Therefore, the candidate third-party projects should probe the closely related topics addressed in the project and should aim at widening and enriching the existing R&D activities as well as suggesting new ones which are complementary to the project goals and aims. Ideally, the project results should be integrated with the OpenWebSearch.eu infrastructure.
“Common Crawl is not only a major resource for web-innovations, but also an inspiring partner. We are particularly looking forward to co-operating on license-aware crawling and to integrate their crawls into our open web index,“ says Michael Granitzer, OWS.EU’s principal investigator.
The Common Crawl Foundation is an NGO that crawls the web and freely provides its archives and datasets to the public. Its mission: to democratize Open Web Search, “enabling free access to web crawl data encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary research, as organizations, academia, and non-profits can work together to address complex challenges.” The non-profit has significantly expanded its core team throughout the last two years and is continually growing.
We are proud to be an early partner, sharing a similar vision.
Six third-party partners have joined the EU funded project OpenWebSearch.EU, introducing new technical, legal and economic research topics in support of a European Open Web Index.
Learn about their research at the Uni Passau, about resource-efficient crawling and how they build crawling pipelines for an open web index – and why the heterogeneous infrastructure of the project is a major challenge in their work.
Read the interview here:
https://digitalpebble.blogspot.com/2023/11/meet-stormcrawler-users-q-with-open-web.html
On October 27th 2023, OpenWebSearch.eu successfully onboarded six Third Parties who were selected subsequent to its first Open Call (announced in March 2023) for the OpenWebSearch.eu Community Programme in 2023. The selected partners were picked from 21 submissions with the goal to extend and enrich existing R&D activities that are relevant to the project in reaching key targets.
The call demanded contributions in form of research studies on legal or economic aspects of Open Search (Track 1) as well as on concepts for legally compliant data acquisition, processing, considering also societal constraints (Track 2).
Third-party projects should explore closely related topics of the project. They should aim to extend and enrich the existing R&D activities and propose new ones that complement the project objectives. The calls especially targeted smaller companies (i.e., SMEs, start-ups), individual innovators, individual researchers or research teams (e.g., doctoral or post-doctoral researchers).
The selected third-party projects are funded under the OpenWebSearch.eu Community Program. They receive partial fundings for their project contributions ranging between 25.000 and 120.000 Euros each.
MRC
„Market Potential Assessment for OpenWebSearch.eu: Quantifying benefits and costs of scaling EU web search“.
Provided by Mücke Roth & Company GmbH (Germany)
Click here for the partner profile.
LISA
„A Legal Framework for the development and Operation of an Open Web Search Index (Legal, Intellectual Property and Cyber-Security Aspects)“.
Provided by Prof. Dr. Matthias Wendland from Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany)
Click here for the partner profile.
OPEN CONSOLE
„Open Console Implementation“.
Provided by Mark Overmeer and Thao Phuong Nguyen from MARKOV Solutions (The Netherlands)
Click here for the partner profile.
LOREN
„Legal Open European Web Index“.
Provided by Paul C. Johannes and Dr. Maxi Nebel (Germany)
Click here for the partner profile.
ALMASTIC
„Assessing Legal Risks and Mitigating Challenges in Open Web Indexes“.
Provided by Prof. Dr. Kai Erenli from BFI Vienna (Austria)
Click here for the partner profile.
LAW4OSAI
„License-Aware Web Crawling for Open Search AI“.
Provided by Dr. Daniel Braun – University of Twente (The Netherlands), Dr. Bernhard Waltl – Liquid Legal Institute (Germany) and Balthasar Cevc – Fingolex (Germany)
Click here for the partner profile.
The next call for proposals will follow in the first quarter of 2024. To stay up to date regarding proceedings as well as to stay on top of the next Open Call, interested parties from research and business can follow OpenWebSearch.eu on the Socials (LinkedIn, Mastodon, Twitter/X), join the community Channel on MatterMost and regularly check our website: https://openwebsearch.eu/community
OpenWebSearch.eu is funded by the EC under GA 101070014.
The team of the Open Search Foundation has prepared comprehensive reviews of all three days Read all about the keynotes and presentations – including pictures
Get in touch with the OpenWebSearch.eu community
Funded by the
European Union
The project OpenWebSearch.EU has received funding from the European Union's Horizon research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101070014.
