Replicant

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h1. Funding

h2. Funding procedure

h3. Background and rationale for funding work through the NLnet foundation

The NLnet foundation managed to get some European Union grants to fund work on privacy and trust technologies.

It's then up to individuals to apply to it, and to define tasks that can improve privacy and trust on the Internet, which then the NLnet foundation can choose to fund.

This could for instance be used to fund the advancement of software (Tor, Replicant, etc) and hardware freedom (RISC-V, etc).

The only requirement (beside improving privacy and trust) seem to be that the project needs to have an European Union component (like the people applying for the grant living in the European union, etc).

They are then paid once tasks defined and/or the deliverables mentioned in the task have been completed.

The NLnet foundation also have some resources to help pushing changes upstream and try to push the applicants into making their work as useful as possible by engaging with upstream communities.

References:

* "Fosdem Lightning talks on the topic":https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/nextgen_internet/

h3. Tasks for funding through the NLnet foundation

| Task                                                                                        | Status |

| [[PortReplicantToAnewerAndroidVersion|Finish porting Replicant to a newer Android version]] | Ended  |

| [[FundingGraphicsAcceleration|Graphics acceleration]]                                       | Ended  |

h3. Discussions

There is "a thread about funding on the mailing list":https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2019-January/001774.html about that

h3. Mistakes and improvements

* When submitting a task to the NLnet Foundation make sure to select a call in "Please select a call", like "NGI Privacy & Trust Enhancing Technologies". I for instance forgot to select the right call.

* The amount requested was too high as the grant is not taxed. The amount was changed after the submission and acceptation.

* The tasks had to be grouped in themes and not in months (like make the modem work)

* The tasks/themes need to have an amount associated on the MOU document. Though the amount can be calculated with fixed costs and hours.

* NLnet now has hired or is in the process of hiring someone to help keep contact with people working on the tasks. This should help a lot for instance with understanding how to handle unexpected issues like tasks taking longer, or for exchanging a task against another (for instance if there is a dead-end).