ELFA
Encrypted Local First Architecture
More about: Guide for Applicants | Who is behind this? | Eligibility | FAQ
The first call of ELFA will open up on June 1st 2026, with a deadline of August 1st 2026 12:00 CEST (noon). Check out the guide for applicants and the frequently asked questions.
ELFA (which stands for "Encrypted Local First") is a programme that aims to create a full-fledged collaborative and decentralized open platform capable of providing private workspaces and healthy social networking. To demonstrate its utility, ELFA is developing an integrated suite of collaborative apps with end-to-end encryption, and easily usable by individuals, organisations and groups. As the name indicates, the apps work Local First, meaning that the software is designed to work well even if you or the people you work with are not continuously online. The suite features a document editor, spreadsheet, email client, calendar, contact manager, project manager, communication tools for video calls and chat, forms and tables, photo and video sharing, as well as social networking and virtual reality. For more information visit the main ELFA webpage.
Part of the budget of ELFA (10%, which ends up at 300 000 €) is reserved for open calls to fund auxiliary free and open source efforts that are aligned with the topics and approach of the programme. These small to medium-size R&D grants are aimed at achieving practical contributions to the goals of ELFA.
We are seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 €. We are open to new ideas and disruptive technologies for every application domain within scope of ELFA as well as its foundational technologies. Novelty isn't the main driver, we also want to onboard existing technologies that are still future-proof — whatever leads to practical, real-world impact. Through these grants we strenghten the proposition of ELFA, and support the work of independent researchers and developers and organisations that help achieve the core objectives of ELFA. The outcome will be a more open, trustworthy, and safer open internet stack.
Of course you can contribute exciting new capabilities to the software being developed elsewhere within ELFA, build auxiliary tools or work on user experience, but you could also be developing integrations into FOSS applications and open standards, or work on improvements of key infrastructure components for the underlying stack. Together with other initiatives within Open Internet Stack, we move forward to democratise technology and make it more resilient and secure. For that, we need your contributions.
Project results shall always become available under a recognised free or open source license. Proposals need to fit within the goals of ELFA and the Open Internet Stack, and should make a concrete contribution to bring that goal closer. We stimulate the creation and use of norms and standards, as these enable interoperability and redundancy in implementation, and reduce the risk of future compromise and failure. Don't be afraid to send something out of the box if you think you can contribute to the topic — it really is an open call.
The first call of ELFA will open up on June 1st 2026, with a deadline of August 1st 2026 12:00 CEST (noon). Check out the guide for applicants and the frequently asked questions.
Open Internet Stack
ELFA is part of Open Internet Stack, a nascent initiative by the European Commission to work towards an resilient operational stack of strategic technology commons worthy of trust. This initiative is trying to establish a stable and defendable foundation capable of fostering healthy and strong democracies and economies, and delivering the European vision of next generation digital infrastructures. It wants to deliver an ecosystem of deployable, scalable, and secure technologies that allow for permissionless innovation, contribute to quality of life and deliver strategic autonomy.
Open Internet Stack builds on the Next Generation Internet initiative, a multi-annual series of research and innovation programmes and associated support programmes to re-imagine and re-engineer the internet for the third millennium and beyond to shape a value-centric, human and inclusive society for all.
Through the NGI Zero grantmaking programmes and scale-ups like NGI Fediversity, NGI TALER, the Next Generation Internet initiative established a large set of trustworthy building blocks ready to be turned into reliable infrastructure, products and services.
The goal of Open Internet Stack is to provide practical tools that public administrations, SMEs, and individual users can adopt and adapt to their specific needs — delivering digital autonomy and strenghtening competitiveness. Current programmes include Restack and CodeSupply, several more programmes are expected to start end of 2026.
Acknowledgements
ELFA is made possible with financial support from the European Commission's DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology through Horizon Europe grant agreement No. 101298715.
