We need a European Sovereign Tech Fund (GitHub blog)

GitHub director of developer policy, Felix Reda, has publisheda blog post about a GitHub-commissioned study by Open Forum Europe, Fraunhofer ISI andthe European UniversityInstitute. The study finds, not surprisingly, "a profoundmismatch between the importance of open source maintenance and thepublic attention it receives"; it calls for a European sovereigntech fund (STF) modeled after Germany's Sovereign Tech Agency.

The study proposes two alternative institutional setups for theEU-STF: either the creation of a centralized EU institution (themoonshot model), or a consortium of EU member states that provide theinitial funding and apply for additional resources from the EU budget(the pragmatic model). In both cases, to make the fund a success, theminimum contribution from the upcoming EU multiannual budget should beno less than 350 million. This would not be enough to meet the opensource maintenance need, but it could form the basis for leveragingindustry and national government co-financing that would make alasting impact.

The European Union is currently starting negotiations for its2028-2034 budget, the MultiannualFinancial Framework; GitHub and others hope to persuade EU legislators toinclude a European STF in that framework.