Youth-Driven Social Media Design: Safe, Inclusive, and Publicly-Owned Social Media

Worum geht es in dieser Ausschreibung?

The call funds a single project to co-design, build and test a decentralised social media service for young people that protects their well-being, using the ActivityPub or AT Protocol. It is open to consortia of at least four independent legal entities from three EU countries.

Was fördert diese Ausschreibung?

Scope

This pilot project call seeks to fund one project that designs and tests a social media platform for young EU citizens, built on the Fediverse (ActivityPub) or the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol and focused on user well-being. The platform is shaped through co-creation with young people, and its roll-out strategy is based on market research and stakeholder consultation.

Objectives and activities

Proposals should address the following:

• Involve young citizens from a wide variety of backgrounds, and from at least eight Member States with geographic balance between North, East, West and South, in conceiving key aspects of the platform. Young people with disabilities or neurodevelopmental conditions should be included, with expert support from fields such as mental health, cognitive science or software development and from civil society organisations.
• Analyse market conditions for alternative and inclusive decentralised social media and design an uptake and sustainability strategy, mapping and involving stakeholders who can support it.
• Create at least one functioning prototype, or upgrade at least two existing European decentralised services, based on ActivityPub or AT Protocol and incorporating insights on minimising risks to mental health.
• Test and refine the prototype for safety, user-friendliness and mental health, compare it with other platforms, and explore responsible use of AI for content discovery, moderation and verification in line with European values and fundamental rights.
• Promote the prototype across EU countries to potential users and stakeholders such as content creators and media organisations, carrying out at least the first step of the uptake strategy.
• Document lessons learnt in at least one report on opportunities and challenges for European decentralised social media, with recommendations for future public funding, and where possible publish results and open-source the software.

Expected outcomes

Projects should show concrete potential through a first roll-out stage during the project, guided by a strong uptake strategy. Results should benefit the wider European decentralised social media ecosystem and, where possible, contribute to the ActivityPub and AT Protocol software communities. The project should also generate insights on how decentralised services can become a widely used alternative and on the factors that help EU technology start-ups in this space to scale.

Eligible costs

The grant is a budget-based mixed actual cost grant combining actual costs with unit cost and flat-rate elements. Budget categories include personnel, subcontracting, purchase costs and indirect costs.

Wann endet die Einreichungsfrist?

6. Oktober 2026

6 October 2026, 17:00:00 CEST (Brussels). Proposals are submitted electronically through the Funding and Tenders Portal. Evaluation is planned from 7 October 2026, with information on results in November and December 2026.