The objective of the NEXTLEAP project is to build the fundamental interdisciplinary internet science necessary to create decentralized, secure, and rights-preserving protocols for the next generation of collective awareness platforms. The long-term goal of NEXTLEAP is to have Europe take the “next leap ahead” of the rest of the world by solving the fundamental challenge of determining how both to scientifically build and how to help citizens and institutions adopt open-source decentralized and privacy-preserving digital social platforms in contrast to proprietary centralized cloud-based services and pervasive surveillance that function at the expense of rights and technological sovereignty.