Sovereign Tech Fund
German Government-funded organization investing in open source digital infrastructure to strengthen the security, resilience, and sustainability of critical open source software.
Overview
The Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) is a German Government-funded initiative that invests in open source digital infrastructure to strengthen the security, resilience, and technological sovereignty of critical open source software. Founded in 2022 and operated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, STF provides significant grants (typically EUR 100,000 to EUR 1,000,000+) to open source maintainers and teams working on critical infrastructure software. STF focuses on projects that are widely used but underfunded, with a particular emphasis on security hardening, modernization, and long-term sustainability. Notable STF investments include work on curl, OpenSSH, Rustls, and other foundational internet tools.
What You Can Find Here
- Large grants for critical open source infrastructure work (EUR 100,000 to EUR 1M+)
- STF Contribute Back Packages - funding for open source maintainers via organizational sponsors
- STF Bug Resilience Program - security-focused grants for vulnerability reduction
- STF Fellowships for individual open source maintainers of critical infrastructure
- Funding for security audits, modernization, documentation, and technical debt reduction
- Multi-year investment relationships with critical open source projects
Who Should Use This
- Maintainers of critical, widely-used open source infrastructure that is underfunded
- Open source security researchers seeking funding for security hardening of foundational tools
- Teams working on internet security protocols, cryptography libraries, and operating system tools
- Organizations that want to contribute funding back to open source dependencies via STF Contribute Back
How to Get Started
- Step 1: Visit sovereign.tech to review STF programs and current open calls
- Step 2: Review STF's investment criteria: is your project critical infrastructure, widely used, and underfunded?
- Step 3: Submit an application during an open call - STF has periodic open calls as well as direct outreach to critical projects
- Step 4: Applications are reviewed by STF staff for technical criticality, security impact, and funding gap
- Step 5: Selected projects negotiate a work plan with STF and receive milestone-based funding
Things to Check Before Applying
- STF focuses on critical infrastructure software - consumer apps and new projects rarely qualify
- Funded work must be open source and the results must remain openly available
- Grant amounts are large compared to typical open source grants - correspondingly, projects must have significant impact
- STF has limited open call windows - watch sovereign.tech for announcements
Frequently Asked Questions
What qualifies as "critical infrastructure" for STF?
Critical open source infrastructure is software that is widely depended on by other software, operating systems, or internet services, yet often under-resourced. Examples: cryptography libraries, network protocols, core system utilities, widely-used data parsing libraries.
How large are Sovereign Tech Fund grants?
STF grants range from around EUR 100,000 for focused security improvements to over EUR 1,000,000 for multi-year infrastructure investments. This is significantly larger than most open source grants.
Can organizations from outside Germany apply for STF?
Yes. STF funds open source projects worldwide - it is not restricted to German projects. The key criterion is that the work benefits the global open source ecosystem.
What is the STF Contribute Back Package?
The Contribute Back Package is a mechanism for organizations (companies, government agencies) to channel funding to critical open source dependencies through STF. Rather than maintaining their own open source programs, organizations can pool resources through STF.
How is STF different from NLnet?
NLnet funds smaller projects (up to EUR 50,000) across privacy, protocols, and internet openness. STF makes larger investments (EUR 100k-1M+) specifically in critical infrastructure security and sustainability. Both complement each other for different project sizes and focuses.
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