New Investments, AI Sovereignty, UN Open Source Principles and more!

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This month, we’re sharing updates and details on new investments, our call to start with open infrastructure when building AI sovereignty, and an endorsement of the UN Open Source Principles. Plus, don’t miss the recording of CEO Adriana Groh’s panel discussion at Open Source Policy Summit and event announcements for the weeks ahead—where you’ll have the chance to meet our team members, attend our talks, and engage with us in person!

If you’d like to find out about these updates as they happen, you can find the Sovereign Tech Agency on Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Bluesky.

We invest globally in the open software components that underpin Germany's and Europe's competitiveness and ability to innovate. Improving the security, stability, and reusability of open software components directly enhances the productivity, competitive edge, and capacity for innovation of startups and small and medium-sized businesses. We’re excited to be working with these maintainers and FOSS communities, and to be supporting the software that forms the foundation of the infrastructure of the 21st century.

Eclipse Foundation

• The Eclipse Foundation hosts key Java-based open source technologies, relevant for many pioneering technology fields (automotive, IoT, cloud, DevOps, AI), promoting innovation through open, collaborative software development
• The commissioned work strengthens the Eclipse Foundation open source ecosystem by introducing SBOM generation and improved vulnerability management processes

OpenStreetMap

• OSM technology forms the foundation for a wide range of applications in navigation, logistics, humanitarian aid, academia, and the public sector, enabling innovation through open, collaborative geospatial data
• The commissioned work ensures the stability, growth, and modernization of the core software powering the global open mapping ecosystem

Samba

• Samba’s technology forms the foundation for secure, efficient, and unified IT infrastructures across enterprises, public institutions, educational facilities, and cloud providers, enabling innovation through open, collaborative networking solutions
• The comissioned work enhances the security, scalability, and functionality of an essential implementation of SMB and IAM protocols

The first cohort of the Sovereign Tech Fellowship—Jan, Sarah, Hugo, Matthias, Stefan, and Denis—joined the Sovereign Tech Agency’s one-year pilot program to support critical digital infrastructure and its maintainers.

Meet the maintainers

The AI Action Summit in Paris highlighted Europe's commitment to trusted and sovereign AI. The Sovereign Tech Agency emphasized that true technological sovereignty requires significant investment in open digital infrastructure—critical yet often overlooked—ensuring AI remains accessible, competitive, and not dominated by a few powerful players.

Read more

The United Nations have released eight guidelines that offer a framework for the use, development, and sharing of open source software. We are delighted to join fifteen other organizations endorsing the UN open source principles, designed to foster open and inclusive digital solutions worldwide.

Read more

At FOSS Backstage in Berlin, several team members from the Sovereign Tech Agency took the stage to highlight the role of open source in achieving key societal goals. Discussions covered the strategic importance of open source for Europe, the impact of public funding on digital infrastructure, and the parallels between open source and public utilities. Adriana Groh also joined a spontaneous recap on providing expert testimony to the German Bundestag, emphasizing the critical role of FOSS across all sectors. It was a pleasure to meet so many maintainers and contributors in person—real people doing vital work that we all rely on. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended our talks and contributed to the empowering and fruitful conversations we had at the conference.

Our CEO, Adriana Groh, joined the opening high-level panel, “What can Open Source do for Europe” at EU Open Source Policy Summit in Brussels back in January. The panel highlighted Germany’s approach to digital sovereignty through initiatives like the Sovereign Tech Agency, building new ways to invest in the open source ecosystem, unlocking its potential by securing its foundations, and maintaining what we rely on every day.

This year's edition of the Symposium, hosted at Fundação Getulio Vargas Direito Rio Law School in Rio de Janeiro, will be themed "Open Technology Impact in Uncertain Times" and considers the transformative potential of openness in a world where certainty is no longer guaranteed. The OFA Symposium 2025 brings academics and practitioners together to advance understanding of the role of open source and other open technologies in the modern world and produces policy-relevant research that helps decision-makers drive impact. Sovereign Tech Agency’s Paul Sharratt is serving on the program committee.

The call for papers is open until 1 June 2025.

Submit proposal

• On 24 April 2025, Paul Sharratt will be speaking at the AHOY! conference in Hamburg
• On 23 May 2025, Adriana Groh will be speaking at a symposium on cybersecurity, resilience and sovereigntyhosted at Akademie für Politische Bildung in Tutzing
• On 15 May 2025, Sovereign Tech Agency and Tweede golf are organising a meeting hosted by RustNL about memory safety in the EU in Utrecht. If interested in participating, please contact Tara Tarakiyee