Solicited topics
http://www.igst.it/nettab/2016/submissions/topics/
I think a presentation on what Debian (Med) has to offer the community would be well received and I would be happy to co-author or advise such an abstract.
The COST mechanism is also interesting: could fund a four year project with support for sprints and trainings on community software maintenance.
We would need collaboration between five COST countries (basically Europe), financial support averages EUR 130 000 per year for a four-year period (though it is all for meeting support, no salaries or direct research support).