Sovereign Tech Agency: The Sovereign Tech Fund is here to stay
The Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) has flourished and grown over the past two years at the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND. Now as part of the newly established Sovereign Tech Agency GmbH, STF will gain more independence. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection is securing the Sovereign Tech Agency's funding with a dedicated directive - emphasizing the significance of maintaining and securing open digital infrastructure.
The Sovereign Tech Agency is incorporated as a subsidiary of SPRIND; its objective is to strengthen – in the public interest – open technologies that enable innovation. This offers many opportunities for synergies between the two organizations. The ongoing development of the Sovereign Tech Agency will be overseen by its own supervisory board.
“The Sovereign Tech Agency is taking on an important mission in the public interest: digital services in the public interest and stable infrastructure as the foundation for a resilient and democratic future.”
“We are developing a unique institution that, in addition to direct investments in critical core technologies, strengthens the digital sovereignty and security of our society with a growing portfolio of tools.”
Since its founding in October 2022, the team has built successful initiatives, making a meaning contribution to strengthening digital sovereignty. In addition to the Sovereign Tech Fund as an investment tool, a number of different approaches have found a new home at the Sovereign Tech Agency and can continue to grow there: The Resilience program does innovative work in preventing, detecting, and eliminating vulnerabilities. The Fellowship for open source maintainers, which launched in September, offers new support models for experts working on critical digital infrastructure. Around 23.5€ million have already been invested in 60 critical technologies like Log4j, Pendulum, Prossimo, GNOME, Samba and many other projects. In total, however, more than 500 project proposals demonstrating a need of around 114€ million have been submitted and reviewed.
“Foundational open source technologies are the bedrock on which virtually all innovation is built. They accelerate development, increase security, and quality. They are the infrastructure of everything digital, the foundation of the new things we want to create in the world. I am very pleased that we were able to help incubate and now permanently establish the Sovereign Tech Fund.”
The Sovereign Tech Agency will continue to develop and scale initiatives to strengthen the open source ecosystem. In order to ensure that the long-term impact of the agency's work, further initiatives are planned, for example to support the next generation of open source talent and to collaborate with international partners.
About the Sovereign Tech Agency
The Sovereign Tech Agency is the first publicly funded organization in Europe tasked with strengthening critical digital infrastructure. It identifies and invests in foundational open source software components and supports open technologies with broad societal importance. Providing digital services in the public interest enables the independent use of open technologies by the state, the private sector, organizations, and individuals, and safeguards security and technological diversity. The Sovereign Tech Agency is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and is a subsidiary of SPRIND, the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation. It was started by Adriana Groh and Fiona Krakenbürger following a feasibility study conducted with experts from the open source ecosystem in 2022. The organization currently employs 14 people and is based in Berlin.
Contact for Press Inquiries
Powen Shiah | Communications
info@sovereigntechfund.de
+49 15114934113