Lack of funding on the European ground, yes, I do see and NLNet seems to be yet another example of it. If my peers had the idea to develop some PoC, and they don't run the startup, how else would they get some pocket money to survive the year of development? All other funds are reserved for bigger and already established companies and/or organizations. And if there's one funding that the individual or few of them had a chance to get it is the NLNet. If there's more than NLNet then I'd like to hear about it.

Also, from the project list it reads as if they're anti-AI - only 3 "AI" projects selected out of 67. Considering the AI development trajectory through the course of couple of years, and especially in the last 1-2 years, it is highly likely that the largest output and innovation will exactly be in the AI domain in the next years to come. So IMO it seems like a lack of vision as I am pretty sure that there are strong individuals with great ideas but for which they lack financial support.