Sovereign Tech Agency

Short description: German funder of open source software

The Sovereign Tech Agency is a subsidiary of the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, aimed at providing financial support to open-source software. The initial funds were allocated by the Bundestag in May 2022.[1][2]

## Contents

* 1 Purpose of funding
* 2 Scope and organization
* 3 Current programs
* 4 Supported projects
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## Purpose of funding

According to the federal budget of Germany plan, the program aims to promote and secure open-source foundational technologies.[3] It intends to make the open-source ecosystem more resilient against external attacks, thereby enhancing cybersecurity and resilience across the German economy. This initiative fulfills a demand from the coalition government.[4] This is also an approach to the classic free-rider problem faced by many open source projects.[5]

The funding is described as time-limited and targeted at specific challenges or security vulnerabilities.[6][7]

## Scope and organization

In 2022, the program had a budget of 13 million euros,[8] which increased to approximately 22 million euros in 2023 and was expected to reach up to 16 million euros in 2024. The executive team consists of:

* Adriana Groh (co-CEO), previously from the Open Knowledge Foundation's Prototype Fund[9]
* Luisa von Beust (co-CEO), previously at several commercial organizations
* Fiona Krakenbürger (CTO), previously worked at the Open Technology Fund[10][11]

## Current programs

The Sovereign Tech Agency operates through several programs designed to strengthen the security and sustainability of digital infrastructure:

* Sovereign Tech Fund: This program provides strategic investments in open-source software components deemed essential for economic competitiveness and innovation. It focuses on core digital infrastructure to achieve cross-sector scaling, specifically benefiting startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
* Sovereign Tech Resilience: This initiative takes a proactive approach to protecting critical digital infrastructure. Beyond discovering and fixing existing vulnerabilities (including through bug bounty initiatives), the program aims to increase the long-term resilience of open infrastructure against future threats.
* Sovereign Tech Fellowship: Through a "Maintainer-in-Residence" model, the agency provides financial support to individual experts and maintainers. The program aims to ensure the sustainability of the human labor behind critical codebases, which is often underfunded or unrecognized.
* Sovereign Tech Challenge: Through a competition-based model, this program identifies structural challenges in the open-source ecosystem. It encourages the development of innovative solutions for emerging technologies and the securing of existing technological dependencies.

## Supported projects

As of April 2025, the following projects received funding:[8][12]

* ActivityPub testsuite: €152,000
* Arch Linux Package Management (ALPM): €562,800 [13]
* coreutils: €99,060
* cURL: €195,500
* domain: €993,600[clarification needed]
* Drupal: €278,700 [14]
* The Eclipse Foundation: €515,200 [15]
* FFmpeg: €157,580 [16][17]
* Fortran ecosystem (e.g. Fortran Package Manager, fpm): €816.000 [18] €182,930
* FreeBSD: €686,400 [19]
* GNOME: 1 million €[20][21][22]
* GNU libmicrohttpd: €300,000
* GopenPGP/OpenPGP.js: €176,955
* GStreamer: €203,000
* JavaScript ecosystem (see also OpenJS below, for additional investment): €176,955
* JUnit: €180,000
* Log4j: €596,160
* Mamba: €349,875
* OpenBGPd: €200,000
* OpenBLAS: €263,000
* OpenJS (investment in JavaScript, see it also above): €874,940 [23][24][25]
* OpenStreetMap: €384,000
* OpenMLS: €195,000
* OpenSSH: €200,000 [26]
* Pendulum: €449,850
* PHP: €205,000 [27][28]
* Prossimo, part of Internet Security Research Group, to support projects including Rustls:[29][30] €1,436,729
* Python Package Index: €1,056,672
* Reproducible builds: €353,430
* RubyGems & Bundler: €668,400
* Samba: €688,800 [31]
* Sequoia PGP: €900,000
* systemd: €455,000
* WireGuard: €209,000
* Yocto Project: €759,000 [32][33]

## See also

* NLnet
* Next Generation Internet
* Horizon 2020
* Horizon Europe
* EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF)
* Technological sovereignty

## References

1. ↑ "51 Millionen Euro für Open Source und digitale Souveränität" (in de). 2022-05-20. https://www.embedded-software-engineering.de/51-millionen-euro-fuer-open-source-und-digitale-souveraenitaet-a-2f8988949f6a7611b1f01fa92ef8784a/.
2. ↑ "Germany to launch sovereign tech fund to secure digital infrastructure" (in en). https://sciencebusiness.net/news/cybersecurity/germany-launch-sovereign-tech-fund-secure-digital-infrastructure.
3. ↑ Bundeshaushaltsplan 2023, Einzelplan 09, Federal Budget Plan 2023, Single Plan 09, Chapter 09 01 – Title 685 03.
4. ↑ "51 Millionen Euro für Open Source und digitale Souveränität". 2022-05-22. https://www.embedded-software-engineering.de/51-millionen-euro-fuer-open-source-und-digitale-souveraenitaet-a-2f8988949f6a7611b1f01fa92ef8784a/.
5. ↑ "Open-Source Software is in Crisis - IEEE Spectrum" (in en). https://spectrum.ieee.org/open-source-crisis.
6. ↑ Response from State Secretary Udo Philipp, October 26, 2022, to a written question from Member of Parliament Dr. Petra Sitte (THE LEFT), Parliamentary Paper 20/4209, p. 19., Bundestags-Drucksache 20/4209, S. 19.
7. ↑ "The Open Source Way - Sovereign Tech Fund – Investing in the Future Today" (in en-US). 20 December 2023. https://podcast.opensap.info/open-source-way/2023/12/20/sovereign-tech-fund-investing-in-the-future-today/.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Inga Pöting (2022-12-30). "Steuermillionen für Hobbyprojekte". Zeit Online GmbH. https://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2022-12/open-source-software-sovereign-tech-fund-foerderung/komplettansicht.
9. ↑ "How to innovate? Prototype everything!". 19 December 2017. https://blog.okfn.org/2017/12/19/how-to-innovate-prototype-everything/.
10. ↑ "Sovereign Tech Fund" (in en). https://www.sprind.org/en/projects/sovereign-tech-fund.
11. ↑ "Episode 368 – The Sovereign Tech Fund with Fiona Krakenbürger" (in en). 2023-03-27. https://opensourcesecurity.io/2023/03/26/episode-368-the-sovereign-tech-fund-with-fiona-krakenburger/.
12. ↑ Niklas Dierking (2022-11-14). "Freie Software: Bund fördert Open Source". https://www.heise.de/news/Bund-foerdert-Open-Source-7324588.html.
13. ↑ "Arch Linux Package Management (ALPM) gets funding from Sovereign Tech Agency" (in en). 2024-12-10. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/12/arch-linux-package-management-alpm-gets-funding-from-sovereign-tech-agency/.
14. ↑ "Drupal Association secures $300,000 in funding from Sovereign Tech Fund" (in en). 2024-01-11. https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/drupal-association-secures-300000-in-funding-from-sovereign-tech-fund-1.
15. ↑ "Sovereign Tech Agency Investing €515k Into The Eclipse Foundation" (in en). https://www.phoronix.com/news/STA-Invests-In-Eclipse.
16. ↑ "Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund Now Supporting FFmpeg" (in en). https://www.phoronix.com/news/Germany-STF-For-FFmpeg.
17. ↑ "FFmpeg" (in en). https://www.sovereign.tech/tech/ffmpeg.
18. ↑ "Fortran" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/fortran.
19. ↑ "Sovereign Tech Fund to Invest €686,400 in FreeBSD Infrastructure Modernization" (in en). https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/sovereign-tech-fund-to-invest-e686400-in-freebsd-infrastructure-modernization/.
20. ↑ "GNOME" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/gnome.
21. ↑ "GNOME Recognized as Public Interest Infrastructure – The GNOME Foundation" (in en-US). https://foundation.gnome.org/2023/11/09/gnome-recognized-as-public-interest-infrastructure/.
22. ↑ "For Drupal to Remain Well and Alive: An Exclusive Conversation with Tim Doyle". 2024-04-02. https://www.thedroptimes.com/interview/38423/drupal-remain-well-and-alive-exclusive-conversation-with-tim-doyle.
23. ↑ "OpenJS Foundation" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/openjs.
24. ↑ Foundation, OpenJS. "Sovereign Tech Fund" (in en). https://openjsf.org/sovereign-tech-fund.
25. ↑ "OpenJS Foundation Receives Major Government Investment from Sovereign Tech Fund for Web Security and Stability" (in en). https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/openjs-foundation-receives-major-government-investment-from-sovereign-tech-fund-for-web-security-and-stability.
26. ↑ "OpenSSH" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/openssh.
27. ↑ "PHP" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/php.
28. ↑ "Sovereign Tech Fund Makes New Investments Into GNOME & PHP, Bug Bounty For systemd" (in en). https://www.phoronix.com/news/Sovereign-Tech-Fund-PHP-GNOME.
29. ↑ Gran, Sarah (2023-07-11). "$1.5M from Sovereign Tech Fund to Fuel Memory Safety". https://www.abetterinternet.org/post/1.5m-for-memory-safety/.
30. ↑ Tarakiyee, Tara (2024-05-22). "On Rust, Memory Safety, and Open Source Infrastructure" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/news/on-rust-memory-safety-open-source-infrastructure.
31. ↑ "Samba" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/samba.
32. ↑ "The Yocto Project" (in en). https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/yocto.
33. ↑ Knight, Megan (2023-10-10). "Sovereign Tech Fund Boosts Yocto Project" (in en-US). https://www.yoctoproject.org/blog/2023/10/10/sovereign-tech-fund-boosts-yocto-project/.

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