NLnet

Posted Jan 9, 2026 11:07 UTC (Fri) by Gladrim (subscriber, #45751)
In reply to: This is the opportunity to write a wish list by alx.manpages
Parent article: European Commission issues call for evidence on open source

In my experience, feedback from NLnet aims to guide you towards something they can fund given the terms of the funding they manage from the EU.

They don't want to tell you what to do, but they do push back to check that you know what you are doing, that you have considered alternatives, and to try to fit what you want to do into one of the active funds. They WANT to fund projects, but each fund has guidelines. Some funds have specific requirements from the EU, such as improving security, and perhaps they might have been able to move your project into such a fund if they had an angle such as memory safety to work with.

Of the projects I've seen fail to get funded, many have become frustrated and given up at the second round of questions.

I'd strongly encourage you to apply again. Talk to them about what you want to do. They are very flexible.