Hi @sjacques, thanks for the important question! As you mentioned because the funding source for this programme is from the US and administered in the US by GOSH Inc, the restrictions are imposed by US law and there is no way around this.
It would be great to find a route to supporting open science hardware projects wherever they take place, in line with the GOSH manifesto and values.
The US-based GOSH Inc is one organisation that administers funding support for the GOSH Community but it is not the sole or exclusive one (more info in this FAQ) - for example reGOSH have obtained funding for Latin American residencies. If other organisations based outside the US would be interested to fundraise to enable wider distribution of project support, the GOSH Community Council would be the people to talk to about how to move forward (in their latest meeting notes they have been discussing with Open Source Ecology Germany about helping with funds in EUR). They can be contacted via the council group here on the forum.
Jenny