Restack: a new European consortium for a digital Europe - FSFE
Restack: a new European consortium for a digital Europe
Recent geopolitical events have highlighted Europe's need for a
resilient, homegrown technology ecosystem free from critical
dependencies. The new Horizon Europe project Restack aims to accomplish
it. The FSFE is a partner of the
Restack consortium, providing legal and licensing support for potentially
over 200 Free Software projects and assisting their growth into part of a
wider European digital commons.
Europe urgently needs to regain the capabilities to run its own
digital infrastructure. The “cloud-first” strategy that has dominated in
the past decade has shown itself to be an unsustainable long-term
strategy in light of geopolitical stressors. Despite this need for
digital sovereignty, [funding for European projects
such as the Next
Generation Internet Zero (NGI0) programme was cut](https://fsfe.org/news/2024/news-20240719-01.en.html).
As a result, the FSFE’s ability to provide legal and licensing support
for Free Software projects that have the potential to improve the
internet as a platform would have come to a halt in 2027. In light of
this setback, the FSFE and our fellow NGI0 consortium partners have been
searching for an alternative to provide similar support for Free
Software projects.
These efforts proved successful in February 2026, when the proposal
for Restack,
spearheaded by our consortium partner the NLnet Foundation, was approved. Operating
under Horizon Europe, this new 10M€ initiative will enable the
consortium partners to continue strengthening the European ecosystem of
contributors to the digital commons with financial and practical
support.
[The Open
Internet Stack framework](https://nlnet.nl/news/2026/20260131-restack.html) is a cascade funding programme designed to
retain the strength of the NGI Zero approach: nurturing bottom-up
innovation by providing small- and medium-sized grants to creators of
free and open technologies, including Free Software, Open Hardware, and
Open Data related projects. It will also provide a pipeline of tailored
support to strengthen the quality and maturity of these projects. The
main novelty within Restack is that a significant amount of targeted
effort will be added to wrap the resulting innovation catalogue into a
coherent stack.
Restack aims to support projects that can help accomplish the
following goals:
- Strengthening the “Free and Open” technology ecosystem, based on
sovereignty and privacy;
- Improving the resilience of the internet;
- Addressing and reducing the environmental impact of digital
technology; and
- Improving transparency in the technological supply chain.
The hope is that, by supporting the growth of such European projects,
Restack will contribute to a healthy Free Software and technological
environment that supports collaboration and transparency. Such an
environment can also strengthen privacy and security for different
groups, ranging from consumers to vulnerable communities such as
minorities and journalists. Additionally, we hope that this project can
help develop economic incentives that encourage collaborative strategies
and community engagement.
As Restack is currently still in its early stages, more information
about how Free Software projects can apply for funding and technical
support will be shared in the coming weeks.
Next Generation Internet and the FSFE
Since 2018, the FSFE has been a consortium member of the [Next
Generation Internet (NGI)](https://fsfe.org/activities/ngi.en.html), supported by the European Commission's DG
CNECT. The NGI has the mission to re-imagine and re-engineer the
internet in order to shape a value-centric, human, and inclusive society
for all.
The FSFE's team provides guidance to successful grantee projects on
legal and licensing issues, and helps them become REUSE compliant.
Through individual assessments and direct assistance, we aim to promote
the display of unambiguous, human-readable, and machine-readable licence
and copyright information. Other consortium partners provide support on
issues that can improve each grantee software project, such as security,
accessibility, and translations, among others. A similar workflow is
expected to be enacted for software projects that are supported under
Restack as well.
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About the FSFE
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology.
Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives. It is important
that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software
gives everybody the rights to use, study, share, and improve software.
These rights help support other fundamental rights like freedom of
speech, freedom of press, and privacy.