Programs
The Sovereign Tech Agency is currently active in four areas, strengthening open source digital infrastructure using a portfolio of different programs.
Sovereign Tech Fund
The open source ecosystem, while incredibly successful, is also increasingly fragile. Many more people are using the software than contributing to it. It is time to invest in digital commons, volunteer communities and the open source ecosystem to build the digital world we want to see. We are working to strengthen the self-determined use of digital technologies and systems by individuals, industry, and governments.
To prepare an application, we ask that you review and consider all information regarding the selection criteria and the subsequent process. Applications are accepted exclusively through our application platform.
Sovereign Tech Resilience
The Sovereign Tech Resilience program takes a preventative approach to safeguarding critical open digital infrastructure by partnering with industry to offer vulnerability management services for open source projects and their maintainers. The goal is to lower their risk of harboring bugs and improve their capacity to respond to bugs as they are discovered. The program provides services to FOSS projects, such as helping projects deal with technical debt, working on known security issues, performing code security audits to reduce high-risk vulnerabilities, as well as offering a bug & fix bounty platform to discover, responsibly report, and fix bugs.
Sovereign Tech Fellowship
We are investing directly in the people behind the code by paying maintainers of critical open source components for their work. It aims to address structural issues in the open source ecosystem and support open digital infrastructure in the public interest.
Sovereign Tech Standards
Open standards determine how software interoperates, how data flows, and how secure and accessible our digital infrastructure is. Yet the open source maintainers who implement these standards are rarely part of the processes that produce them. Participating at IETF, W3C, and ISO takes time, expertise, and resources. The Sovereign Tech Standards network closes that gap by supporting open source maintainers' engagement in standards work, bringing implementation experience into the room where critical decisions about interoperability are made.
We are using an iterative approach and starting with a pilot program. We are accepting applications in May 2026 and will notify selected maintainers in June 2026. The standards pilot program is running from June 2026 through June 2027.
Sovereign Tech Challenge
It’s time to give back and invest in the open source ecosystem, to increase its security and sustainability, and to collectively shape the digital world we want.
Challenge participants can work on contributing back to open source for up to eight months, with a budget of up to €300,000 for each four-month round.
The deadline to apply for the Contribute Back Challenges was July 6, 2023.
