Third-Party Call #1: Media Release

First EU project on Open Web Search launches third-party call
An invitation to advance R&D for a new Internet Search in Europe

OpenWebSearch.EU – a consortium of 14 research partners – is open for third-party proposals to help building an Open and independent Web-Index based on European values (OWI). The first call addresses business and research partners to submit their applications in two tracks from March 1st until April 28th, 2023.

„We are eager to onboard new players – particularly those from research organisations or smaller tech companies – to extend and enrich the R&D activities of the OpenWebSearch.eu ecosystem”, says Dr. Megi Sharikadze, Team lead Research Coordination and Support, EU Research Funding Advisor at Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), one of the consortium partners. 

In particular, the call is targeting SMEs or start-ups, individual innovators and researchers or research teams. Third-party candidates should drive research closely related to the topics addressed in the project. Moreover, they should aim at enriching the existing R&D activities as well as suggesting new ones, in line with the project goals and aims. 

“Building such an Open Web Index faces not only technical challenges. There are also legal and societal issues, especially when we consider recent EU legislations such as the Digital Service Act or the Digital Market Act.”, explains Ms. Sharikadze, driver of the third-party calls.

Thus, the project consortium calls for contributions in two tracks: 

Track 1 includes studies on legal or economic aspects of Open Search. This covers topics, such as legal constraints and requirements of crawling, storing, enriching or sharing web-data, but also the analysis of cost-benefit of an Open Web Index infrastructure across Europe or of market potential and economic impact. 

Track 2 calls for technical concepts for legally compliant data acquisition and processing, considering also societal constraints. This includes contributions, such as vocabularies, metadata schemata or ontologies for expressing/defining legal constraints on web page usage or open datasets and machine learning models for analysing web pages.

In this first call of three, successful applications can request funding between 25,000 and 120,000 EUR for a period of up to 12 months. Members of the consortium as well as external experts will review the applications. Eligible are individuals as well as organisations residing in EU Member States or in Horizon Europe Associated Countries. The third-party projects will be funded under the OpenWebSearch.eu Community Program. All awardees will be essential part of ongoing and future R&D activities of Open Web Search Community.

Applications are accepted via email. Detailed information can be found at: https://openwebsearch.eu/call1

About OpenWebSearch.eu

OpenWebSearch.EU is the first funding project by the EU to get tomorrow’s web search up and running. 14 renowned European research centres kicked-off the project in September 2022. Over the next three years, the researchers will develop the core of a European Open Web Index (OWI). In addition, they will set the foundation for an open and extensible European Open Web Search and Analysis Infrastructure (OWSAI), based on Europe’s values, legislation and standards. The project receives funding of 8,5 million Euros from the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101070014. 

Contact:

ows@opensearchfoundation.org
OpenWebSearch.EU

About Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. It aims to build a knowledge- and innovation-based society and a competitive economy while contributing to sustainable development. The programme aims at implementing the European Commission’s guidelines.

Third-Party Call #1: Announcement

First third-party Call has launched

The OpenWebSearch.eu project consortium is eager to identify new project teams to be funded under the OpenWebSearch.eu Community Programme, on-board and integrate them into ongoing and future activities for sustainable Research and Development on Open Web Search.

Third-party activities are driving forces in the OpenWebSearch.eu Community Programme, with funding provided by the OpenWebSearch.eu project (funded by the EC under the GA 101070014). In spring 2023 the OpenWebSearch.eu Community Programme is coming to life. The Community Programme is comprised of activities in support of third-party project initiation, execution and successful completion.

Topics of Call 1

The first call consists of two tracks:

Track 1: Conceptual contributions on legal or economic aspects of Open Search

Building an Open Web Index (OWI) does not only include technical challenges, but also legal and societal ones, especially when considering recent EU legislation like the Digital Service Act or the Digital Market Act. Furthermore, challenges for new business models or significant changes in the search engine market arise.

The consortium seeks for two possible kinds of studies:

  • Legal Studies to analyse and understand legal constraints and requirements for building and operating an OWI, which includes, but is not limited to (i) compilation and analysis of the laws and norms that are relevant to building and maintaining an OWI, (ii) legal assessment of technical and non-technical prevention mechanism, (iii) legal assessment of the implications of the right to de-referencing for an OWI or (iv) analysis of existing open source and open data licenses in regard to the suitability for usage in an OWI.
  • Economic Studies for setting up and maintaining an OWI as public European infrastructure. This includes, but is not limited to studies for analysing and estimating the costs associated with setting up, operating and maintaining a distributed open web index infrastructure across Europe and analysing and estimating the market potential and economic impact of such an infrastructure.
Track 2: Technical approaches to legally compliant data acquisition considering societal constraints:

Web crawling is the predominant method for web search engines to gather content for their index. However, webmaster and content owners have only limited control over the crawling process via mostly proprietary services. OpenWebSearch.eu is looking for concepts and approaches for opening the proprietary components and provide webmasters and content owners with more control over the crawling process and the usage of their content. Envisioned solutions should be technical in nature, including new metadata schemata/ontologies, algorithms / services for collecting website metadata, services and tools for webmaster and content owners to define legal constraints for crawling as well as open datasets and machine learning models for analysing and filtering web pages during the crawling process.

The OpenWebSearch.EU project consortium is eager to onboard new third-party project teams in OpenWebSearch.eu landscape and integrate them in the future activities for sustainable Research and Development. Therefore, the candidate third-party project 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.

Dates and Modalities

  • Opening date: 1st March 2023
  • Closing date: 28th of April 2023, 17:00
  • Notification date: 30th June 2023
  • Start of projects: 1st August 2023

Successful applications can request funding between 25,000 and 120,000 EUR in this first call for a funding period of up to 12 months.

In particular, we are targeting smaller companies (e.g. SMEs, start-ups), individual innovators, individual researchers or research teams (e.g. doctoral or post-doctoral researchers) from renowned universities. Eligible applicants are individuals residing in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, or organisations registered in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Find more info and the full call application package at:
openwebsearch.eu/call1

Third-Party Call 1: Pre-Announcement

OpenWebSearch.eu
“Piloting a Cooperative Open Web Search Infrastructure to Support Europe’s Digital Sovereignty”

Third-Party Call for Proposals: Call 1 Pre-Announcement

OpenWebSearch.EU will call for proposal to help us building an open and independent Web-index. The call will open on 1st of March 2023 and invites researchers and innovators to submit their applications to join our mission. Applications will be accepted until 30th of April 2023.

The first call consists of two tracks:

  • Track 1: Conceptual contributions on legal or economic aspects of Open Search
  • Track 2: Technical approaches to legally compliant data acquisition considering societal constraints

The OpenWebSearch.EU project consortium is eager to onboard new third-party project teams in OpenWebSearch.eu landscape and integrate them for future activities for sustainable Research and Development. Therefore, the candidate 3rd-party project should probe the closely related to the 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.

Successful applications can request funding between 25,000 and 120,000 EUR in this first call for a funding period of up to 12 months.

In particular, we are targeting smaller companies (e.g. SMEs, start-ups), individual innovators, individual researchers or research teams (e.g. doctoral or post-doctoral researchers) from renowned universities. Eligible applicants are individuals residing in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries or organisations registered in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.