The world depends on open source software. However, the maintenance of open source software tends to be underfunded, especially when you compare it to funding for infrastructure, such as roads and bridges.

Recently, GitHub's developer policy team commissioned a report, “Funding Europe's Open Digital Infrastructure,” from organizations such as OpenForum Europe, Fraunhofer ISI, and the European University Institute. The report considers how to scale up the German Sovereign Tech Agency (one of the most successful open source government programs in the world) to meet the European Union's open source funding needs.

One of the partners in the study is Mercedes-Benz. In the report's foreword, written by Magnus Östberg (Chief Software Officer, Mercedes-Benz AG) and Markus Rettstat (Vice President Software Defined Car, Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation GmbH), the authors state, "At Mercedes-Benz, we recognise that open source software is not a trend but a strategic imperative. It enables collaboration at scale, accelerates innovation, and ensures Europe’s technological sovereignty in an era of geopolitical and economic uncertainty."

One very telling passage in the report comes in the Executive Summary: "Chronic under-investment in open source technologies creates systemic risks – exposing Europe to (amongst other things) cybersecurity threats, supply chain vulnerabilities, and strategic dependencies on non-European technology providers." The summary continues, "In order to maintain, secure, and improve existing open source technologies to meet the EU’s public and industrial goals, it requires policymakers to understand the logics underpinning failures in investing in the maintenance of open source technologies as open digital infrastructure, in order to prioritise the use of public policy towards the unlocking of financial and nonfinancial resources that support the open source ecosystem."

The proposal is to build an European Union (EU) Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF) to show that the EU is willing to base its digital sovereignty on this fund. Not only would the EU-STF provide public funding for open source projects, it would help lead in diversifying funding and investment into the open source ecosystem.