Abstract
Underfunded open source DNS projects create systemic risks, exposing millions of users to vulnerabilities and threatening the stability and security of the entire internet.
The Nominet DNS Fund aims to tackle these critical gaps by investing in the security, resilience, and long-term viability of these essential open source components, recognising that a robust and secure DNS is fundamental to the internet’s continued operation and the public benefit it provides.
Having completed our first round of funding in 2025 and extending in 2026, this session will share highlights including:
RESEARCH Revisiting research conducted by Demos that led us to create the fund: to what extent have we addressed some of the challenges and where do we have further to go?
LEARNING What did we learn from looking at other funds and how did we intentionally do some things differently from others? Did that work well or not in our pilot round? Analysis of key learning about implementing the fund, including surprises and challenges we face moving forward.
ITERATE Demonstrate how our learning has shaped our future direction, as well as ideas where we'd like to improve. A chance for applicants to ask questions about funding opportunities and offer feedback or reflection on the fund.
Recording
Video will be added soon.
Speakers
Amy O'Donnell
As part of Nominet’s Social Impact Team, I have been leading the set up and implementation of the DNS Fund to improve the security, long-term sustainability, and resilience of critical open source projects for DNS.
Dave Knight
Dave Knight is a consultant specializing in DNS products, services and their supporting infrastructure, currently engaged at Nominet.
He is also Principal Undulator at Snake Hill Labs Inc since 2014. Dave has previously held technical leadership and hands-on roles at UltraDNS, Dyn, ICANN, Afilias, and has held various operations engineering roles at Internet Systems Consortium and the RIPE NCC.
Dave has participated in RIPE since joining the RIPE NCC in 1999. There he began a career-long fascination with DNS, particularly around infrastructure and operations. He has made significant expansions to the deployments of three root nameservers, worked on the anycast edge nameserver and DNSSEC signing infrastructure for .ORG and was a member of the project team tasked with deploying DNSSEC in the Internet root zone.
Dave has been a co-chair of the DNS Working Group since 2015, has three times served on the board of directors of DNS OARC and was a member of the OARC Program Committee for two years.
Originally from Scotland, Dave has lived in The Netherlands, California and since 2007 in Ontario.
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Rating will open: Monday, 18 May 2026 09:00 (+0100).