Email from ICANN

The ICANN85 meeting in Mumbai will proceed as planned. However, we understand that there are Board, community members, and staff who may feel uncomfortable traveling under the current circumstances. As with all ICANN Public Meetings, remote participation is available, and we encourage anyone who is uncomfortable traveling to take advantage of that option.

NEW: Welcome to ICANN85 in Mumbai

As ICANN85 approaches, we would like to highlight a few GNSO initiatives that will be on the agenda for the meeting, as well as recent and ongoing work that may interest you.

Information Sharing

2026 Round

NEW: More Entities Qualify for ICANN’s Applicant Support Program

As of 27 February, there are five fully qualified supported applicants and seven that are conditionally qualified, bringing the total to 12 – with 62 applicants still in review.

Next Round Champions Toolkit Available in the Six ICANN Languages

ICANN is working with the community to identify potential Applicant Support Program (ASP) applicants – especially in regions that are currently under-represented in ICANN. If you are interested in helping to raise awareness among your own contacts or communities, please use the materials in the Next Round Champions Toolkit.

To stay up to date on the New gTLD Program: Next Round and ASP, join the mailing list: nextroundinfo@icann.org. ASP leads, targets, and ideas can be sent to engagement.newgTLDprogram@icann.org.

Call for ASP Mentors

ICANN is seeking volunteer mentors who would like to offer their expertise to supported applicants as part of the ASP in the new gTLD Program: Next Round. ICANN is looking for mentors who can share insights and experience across ICANN Languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish) to support diverse gTLD applicants.

Mentors may play a role in: advising applicants on navigating the gTLD application process and DNS industry; identifying resources; providing guidance; sharing experiences as appropriate; and helping supported applicants navigate the ICANN community and Public Meetings. If you or someone in your network might be interested, please refer to the mentor registration announcement for more information.

Questions about the ASP or becoming a supported applicant Mentor can be sent to globalsupport@icann.org.

Action Items

ICANN Request for Proposal: Geographic Names and Reserved Names Panels

Interested providers are invited to submit proposals that ICANN will then evaluate for capability and expertise. Because the work related to both panels is similar, ICANN intends to consolidate the work with a single provider.

Deadline: 13 March 2026

ICANN Request for Proposal: Name Collison Temporary Delegation

ICANN issued a request for proposal (RFP) to identify a service provider to operate the Name Collision Temporary Delegation process for the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: 2026 Round.

Deadline: 6 April 2026

GNSO’s DNS Abuse Mitigation PDP-1 Observer Enrollment

While the PDP membership is structured as a representative model, all of the ICANN community are also free to enroll as an Observer to follow the deliberations of the PDP. To enroll as an Observer, enrollments will be fielded through ICANN Join. If you have not used ICANN Join before, please follow the first-time user instructions below. Accessing ICANN Join does require having an ICANN Account.

ICANN Join Instructions

ICANNWiki Seeking Volunteers

ICANNWiki is seeking volunteers to assist with creating and editing articles and content for the site. Do you want to help? Getting started is as simple as requesting an account. Then, make sure to read the short content guide to get a feel for what belongs in the wiki. Also, feel free to take a look at some data source suggestions on where to find reliable data. Happy editing!

Public Comment

Name Collision Procedure Documentation

Open for Submissions Date: Thursday, 29 January 2026

Closed for Submissions Date: Monday, 16 March 2026