Open source software (OSS) is used extremely widely. Google recently stated that OSS accounts for 77% of total software.Market capitalization exceeds $12 trillion.Despite this, OSS maintenance is severely underfunded, with many projects relying on unpaid or underpaid independent maintainers, leading to maintainer burnout and safety risks.
To this end, Google released the OSS Rebuild project to try to solve this problem, but GitHub hopes to receive more funding from the European Union Sovereign Technology Fund (EU-STF).
The fund will not be used for all open source projects; it will be used for widely used components that lack dedicated funding so that they can receive ongoing maintenance and security.
As part of GitHub's proposal, its developer policy team commissioned a study to investigate the European Sovereign Technology Fund (EU-STF). The Microsoft-owned company said the EU could emulate Germany's sovereign tech agency, which has managed to invest more than 23 million euros in 60 open source software projects in its first two years.
GitHub envisions that the EU Standards and Technology Trust Fund (EU-STF) will focus on identifying critical dependencies and making investments to ensure ongoing maintenance, security, improvement, and enhancement of the broader open source software ecosystem. If you're wondering how much all this will cost, GitHub proposes to allocate at least €350 million from the EU's upcoming multi-year budget (2028-2035). GitHub says:
“This is not enough to meet open source maintenance needs, but it can be the basis for leveraging industry and national government co-financing to have a lasting impact.”
GitHub research outlines the following seven key design criteria for EU-STF:
Centralized financing: Industry, national governments and the EU should contribute to a single fund.
Low bureaucracy: simple application process and minimal reporting from maintenance staff.
Political independence: Avoid changing priorities based on political trends and focus on underlying technology.
Flexible funding: supports individuals, non-profit organizations and companies regardless of whether they are resident in the EU, as long as their work benefits the EU.
Community Focus: Work with the open source community to determine priorities.
Strategic coherence: Have a positive impact on the EU’s strategic goals (economy, digital sovereignty, cybersecurity).
Transparency: High standards for governance and funding decisions.
The proposal from GitHub and Microsoft is perfectly timed to coincide with negotiations on the new EU budget for 2028-2035. The company is also working with EU legislators and industry partners to advocate for the fund, ensuring they understand the benefits and risks of not providing funding. The company also called on individuals, open source software organizations and companies to express support for the EU institutions.