ABOUT
With a dedicated team of eighteen employees, NLnet Labs develops free, liberally licensed, open-source software for DNS and BGP routing. We also perform research, develop standards and support the Internet community. Our work is funded by the Internet industry through donations, support contracts and paid feature development.
Lean and Focused
NLnet Labs as a non-profit organisation is a small, focused team with thirteen software engineers, two researchers, a technologist and two managers. With a flat organisation structure, it is a place where excellent engineers can do what they do best.
Our mission is to make the core of the Internet a better, safer place by developing open-source software, through applied research and by promoting and contributing to open standards. There are at least two developers on every project, ensuring stability and continuity.
Learn more about our organisation.
Financial Stability
All of our activities are funded by organisations in the Internet industry, who either support our mission and/or use our software. We are recognised by the Dutch tax authorities as a Public Benefit Organisation (Dutch: Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling or ANBI), which is the equivalent of a 501(c)(3) organisation in the USA.
Dutch tax regulations allow us to have reserves that guarantee two years of continued operations in case all industry funding would disappear. Thus, in the unlikely event that NLnet Labs can no longer commit to maintaining our software projects, we will announce this at least two years in advance.
Learn more about our funding model and software support policy.
Beyond software engineering
Research
NLnet Labs sees the Internet as a constantly changing interplay of open standards, network operators and users. To keep the Internet viable, stable and secure, it is vital to understand how the Internet works and what effects changes in protocols and operational practices have. For this reason, NLnet Labs considers research into core Internet protocols to be an integral part of its mission.
Learn more about our research.
Standards Development
NLnet Labs actively contributes to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) with a co-chair position in the DNS Operations Working Group, as well as co-authoring several drafts and standards in the area of DNS and BGP routing.
Learn more about our standards work.
Operations
NLnet Labs is actively engaged within the operator and engineering communities. Our team members play an active role in workshops and working groups, making substantial contributions to the essential initiatives within these communities.
Learn more about our work with the operator community.
Policy
NLnet Labs bridges technology and policy. We bring expertise to policy-making bodies, including governments, regulators and multi-stakeholder forums to help them achieve their policy goals in a way that is compatible with an open, secure, resilient and privacy respecting Internet. Conversely, we bring insights from the public sphere and from policy makers to our technical work.
Learn more about our policy work.