CSC: OpenWebSearch.eu initiative moving towards pivotal phase of Europe’s Independence in Web Search

Nine new Third-Party partners support the Horizon Europe funded project OpenWebSearch.eu – receiving 950,000 Euro in funding over the next 9 months.

New partners from academia and industry collaborate closely with the EU-funded project OpenWebSearch.eu to progress open and free web search guided by European values.

The OpenWebSearch.eu project sets out to pilot a European Open Web Index (OWI) as foundation for the development of innovative search and AI applications that are grounded in European values. Following open calls in the beginning of 2024, the OpenWebSearch.eu consortium recently onboarded nine Third-Party project partners into their Community Programme. The new partners will develop new search applications on top of the OWI and provide computing power to expand the Open Web Search infrastructure. Each project will receive funding ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 Euro.

“Having as access to aggregate web data opens new possibilities for research and innovation in academia and industry. Think of anything from serving curated information to training AI-models. At CSC we are particularly excited about making the web indices (web data) available for our EuroHPC Lumi supercomputer users and their imagination,” said Dr. Per Öster, Director of Advanced Computing Facility at CSC.

CSC co-organising the Open Search Symposium 2025 in Finland

CSC is joining forces with the Open Search Foundation to bring the 7th International Open Search Symposium (OSSYM) to Finland for the first time on 8-10 October 2025.

OSSYM is a combination of an academic symposium and a community meeting, bringing together researchers, innovators, activists, service providers, and policy makers for open internet. OSSYM25 call for papers and demos is currently open.

Stay tuned for updates for OSSYM25!

This article was first published on 11 February by CSC.