Researchers, innovators and computing centres are invited to join the quest for a new Internet Search in Europe

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.

„We are delighted to have gained six excellent new partners in our first open call in 2023. Now we call for further third-party partners to contribute their ideas, expertise and infrastructure to the OpenWebSearch.EU initiative“, says Dr Megi Sharikadze, Research Coordination and Support Team Lead, EU Research Funding Advisor at Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), one of the consortium partners.

Thus, the OpenWebSearch.EU project consortium calls for contributions in two new open calls:

**Under Call #2, researchers and innovators are invited to submit ideas for innovative „applications of the Open Web Index“**

Call #2 asks for ideas on how the data provided by the Open Web Index can be used and exploited in innovative use cases or research scenarios. The project consortium will provide access to pre-processed and indexed web data with continuous daily updates until the end of the project.

„We are looking for innovative ideas on how to leverage the Open Web Index and its data“, explains Dr Stefan Voigt, who is a member of the OpenWebSearch.EU project management team, scientist at the German Aerospace Center DLR and Chairman of the board of the Open Search Foundation. „The field for ideas is broad. Applicants can submit ideas that relate to vertical search applications (e.g., kids search), conversational search or search based on large language models. We also welcome topics such as geo-location-based search or new approaches to transparent and privacy-friendly search, just to name a few examples.“

**OpenWebSearch.EU Call #3 addresses computing and data centres**

Call #3 invites computing and data centres to join the OpenWebSearch.eu network of compute infrastructure providers and host parts of the Open Web Search and Analysis Infrastructure (OWSAI) . Called are universities, public compute infrastructure providers, data centres, companies (e.g., cloud providers) or research teams with a well-established data infrastructure.

„We look forward for further data centres on board of the Open Web Search Initiative and to engage in discussions on creating discussing a sustainable search infrastructure with them“, explains Ms. Sharikadze, driver of the third-party calls.

In this second and third third-party call, successful applications can request funding between 50,000 and 150,000 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 Programme. All awardees will be essential parts of ongoing and future R&D activities of the Open Web Search Community.

Applications are accepted via email. Opening date is 8 February 2024. The calls close on 4 April 2024, 17:00 CET.

Detailed information and application packages can be found at:
www.openwebsearch.eu/call2 (applications) and www.openwebsearch.eu/call3 (data centres)

**About OpenWebSearch.eu**

OpenWebSearch.EU is the first EU-funded project, which aims to get tomorrow“s web search up and running. 14 renowned European research centers kicked-off the project in September 2022. Over the three years, the researchers develop the core of a European Open Web Index (OWI). They aim to 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
OpenWebSearch.EU
Christine Plote
c/o open search foundation e.v. – Schorn 5
82319 Starnberg
Phone: +4981519719372
E-Mail:
Url: https://openwebsearch.eu/media-room/

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