Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency Puts Open Source Infrastructure at the Core of Technology Sovereignty
Podcast available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4uBFMH9ZbH1Gh92RSRJ2iv?si=fd98d84901904e15 and on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/epistemicast/germanys-sovereign-tech-agencyIntroduction & Background
Supporting the theme of our sponsor’s PHAIDRAcon2026 event running at Vienna University on 28-29th October, Epistemicast is delving into the topic of digital and data sovereignty.
Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency Puts Open Source Infrastructure at the Core of Technology Sovereignty
Where more populist leaders often present technology development as a “battle” that must be won, the German government is now putting open, collaborative technology development at the centre of its vision for digital sovereignty.
Drawing a distinction between sovereignty and nationalism, progress and protectionism, Germany is now actively funding a more outward looking, European and broader global vision for an open, shared technology base for innovation.
In this edition of Epistemicast, data analyst Laia Domenech Burin, gives us an inside view of Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency. We look at the agency’s remit and focus, discuss the underlying reasoning behind state funding of open source infrastructure and learn about moves to expand the Sovereign Tech Fund into a pan-European initiative alongside wider intergovernmental collaboration.
Links:
The Sovereign Tech Agency: https://www.sovereign.tech/
UN Open Source Week: https://www.unopensource.org/1. Digital Infrastructure as a Public Good
“We see digital infrastructure in the same way that physical infrastructure is maintained and sustained by governments. Roads, bridges . . . these are sustained by the investments of governments.”
— Laia Domenech Burin
Rory: Welcome to Epistemicast. In the next few editions, we will be exploring the topical issues of digital and data sovereignty and their impact on academic and cultural heritage institutions. In an era of heightened geopolitical tension, strategic technologies like data-hungry AI are increasingly viewed as national battlegrounds, while giant corporate platforms seek growing political influence. In response, both governments and users are questioning who owns and controls our digital infrastructure and data.
Leading the way, the German government has established a federal agency and national fund for sovereign technologies, framing technology sovereignty around open source, shared ownership, and global collaboration rather than nationalist competitiveness. Our guest today is Laia Domenech Burin, a data scientist at Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency.
Laia: The Sovereign Tech Agency is a government-owned agency tasked with strengthening digital infrastructure. We view digital infrastructure much like physical infrastructure—such as roads and bridges—which requires state investment and maintenance. Today’s digital technologies rely heavily on open-source components and their underlying dependencies. The core vulnerability is that these components are maintained by volunteer communities lacking adequate support and investment. Our mission is to provide targeted funding for critical, foundational open-source maintenance across the technologies relied upon by public agencies, private enterprises, and academia.
2. Pan-European Scaling and Global Collaboration
Expanding the Sovereign Tech Fund Across Europe
Rory: This initiative originated within the German government. Is there an effort to expand this model across Europe, and are other nations offering support?
Laia: We collaborate extensively at both European and international levels. Internationally, we engage with the United Nations Open Source Week and the Internet Governance Forum. At the European level, we collaborate with the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (Digital Commons EDIC) alongside other EU member states to run a pilot for a European Sovereign Tech Fund. Because open source is inherently international and not restricted to single borders, cross-border and inter-institutional collaboration is essential to sustain shared digital infrastructure.
Rory: So active pilots are currently being developed to elevate this to a European scale?
Laia: Yes, a pilot is currently in the works.
3. Defining Digital Sovereignty and Foundational Infrastructure
Open Source as the Antidote to Vendor Lock-in
“Open source is the core to build digital sovereignty. We understand digital sovereignty as the capacity to shape and use technology in a self-determined way.”
— Laia Domenech Burin
Rory: Why is your remit focused exclusively on open source when pursuing digital sovereignty?
Laia: Open source is central to digital sovereignty. We define digital sovereignty as the capacity to shape, adopt, and deploy technology in a self-determined manner without becoming trapped by dependency on any single external provider or component. Having an open, resilient foundation affords institutions genuine operational autonomy.
Rory: In the private sector, that issue is traditionally known as avoiding vendor lock-in. Which technologies does the Sovereign Tech Agency prioritise—do you focus strictly on infrastructure, or also on user-facing applications?
Funding Invisible Maintenance and Critical Libraries
Laia: We focus strictly on foundational digital infrastructure rather than user-facing interfaces. That encompasses core software libraries, frameworks, and programming languages that sit unseen inside modern devices. It is essentially invisible labour; people often only notice these components when a security vulnerability emerges or a component breaks. We fund the maintenance required to keep these foundations stable. Examples include core projects for file transfers, as well as programming languages widely used in science such as Python and R.
4. Political Resilience and the Public Commons
Cross-Party Consensus in Germany
Rory: Because you treat digital infrastructure as a public good, does this strategy face opposition across different political administrations in Germany?
Laia: The initiative was launched in 2022 as the Sovereign Tech Fund and has transitioned into an agency that has persevered through shifting political coalitions. The consensus that open source forms the bedrock of essential digital infrastructure remains strong in the political landscape and is expected to continue.
Rory: While many administrations globally hesitate to finance public infrastructure, recognition of open source seems to be growing even in places like the United States.
Laia: Across the public sector, private companies, and charitable foundations, there is widespread recognition that open source provides critical building blocks used by everyone. It is supported by a broad and interconnected ecosystem.
5. Aligning Academia and Cultural Heritage
Sustaining Academic Software Dependencies
Rory: How can organisations in academia and cultural heritage align with your mission?
Laia: Institutions must examine their software supply chains to identify which open-source components and dependencies their digital workflows depend upon. Academia already sustains many open-source projects. Acknowledging the volunteer communities maintaining these tools and finding avenues to invest in their security and sustainability is critical.
Rory: Do you coordinate these activities directly with commercial industry?
Laia: We currently do not maintain private industry partnerships. Our direct priority is understanding the needs of maintainer communities. These digital commons are resilient yet vulnerable, and we ensure our funding mechanisms remain as flexible as possible to support maintainers’ day-to-day work.
Rory: Does funding from the Sovereign Tech Agency serve as a quality signal for third parties choosing which technologies to adopt?
Laia: As a data scientist and quantitative analyst at the agency, my role is evaluating the impact of our investments. While our funding strengthens the reliability and resilience of selected projects, our capacity is finite, meaning many dependable open-source projects exist that we have not yet funded.
Scientific Software and the Risks of Commercial Platforms
“Open source lowers the entrance barrier to do science by providing open alternatives rather than private alternatives of research software.”
— Laia Domenech Burin
Rory: Are there distinct traits in open-source projects maintained within academic institutions?
Laia: Academia holds a dual relationship with open source. Many critical infrastructure tools—such as the R language—started as modest academic statistical projects before scaling into indispensable global infrastructure. A major risk for academic software is that initial grants expire, leaving maintainers without ongoing resources. Simultaneously, scientific research relies extensively on languages like Fortran, Python, and R, so researchers must recognise the vulnerability of the infrastructure under their work.
Rory: When academic budgets are constrained, researchers are often drawn toward proprietary cloud platforms like Google Docs for storage and collaboration instead of institutional repositories, allowing corporations access to academic research data. Is that a risk?
Laia: Proprietary platforms may seem convenient, but they deprive researchers of autonomy over their systems. Open source allows institutions to examine the underlying code, adapt it, and retain control, ensuring more sovereign research.
6. The Sovereign Tech Standards Programme
Rooting Web Standards in Maintainer Experience
Rory: How do standards fit into your strategy, particularly for long-term preservation over decades?
Laia: We run the Sovereign Tech Standards program, which commissions experienced open-source maintainers to participate in drafting web standards. Because maintainers have extensive, hands-on experience building software collaboratively across global communities, their direct participation ensures web standards remain practical, sustainable, and grounded in real-world software development.
7. Overcoming the “Free-Rider” Dilemma
The Victory—and Fragility—of the Commons
“You do not expect that roads are maintained by people who are really into asphalt. You know that there is a role that the state has to play there to maintain the infrastructure which people in their day-to-day lives use.”
— Laia Domenech Burin
Rory: Do you collaborate with micro-donation initiatives like GitHub Sponsors or Tidelift?
Laia: We do not partner directly with micro-donation platforms. Multiple funding mechanisms can co-exist, and our agency represents a model where the state assumes responsibility for digital infrastructure by actively investing in its upkeep.
Rory: Open source is often challenged by the free-rider problem, where large commercial actors benefit without contributing, creating a tragedy of the commons. Does the Sovereign Tech Agency’s creation acknowledge that the commons cannot survive without state intervention?
Laia: Open source is not a tragedy of the commons; it is a victory of the commons. Independent, international communities successfully built the foundational components powering all global digital infrastructure. However, because these systems are used by everyone but maintained by very few, they remain fragile. While open source operated historically without state backing, public funding is an important shared responsibility alongside other contributors.
Single Maintainers, Burnout, and Corporate Dependencies
Rory: In many foundational projects, the entire “community” may simply be a single individual working after hours, creating severe burnout risks.
Laia: Single-maintainer projects are widespread and represent a significant challenge. Each open-source project has different governance models and structures, which is why our funding models must remain adaptable to each project’s bespoke needs.
Rory: Is state funding stepping in because digital infrastructure has become too critical to leave unmaintained?
Laia: Open source underpins all digital infrastructure, just as physical infrastructure underpins society. You do not rely on asphalt enthusiasts to maintain public roads; the state steps in because entire economies and political systems depend on them. Similarly, reliable digital infrastructure is an essential matter of state.
Rory: Do corporate actors neglect foundational infrastructure because employees prefer working on visible features rather than low-level maintenance?
Laia: Many private companies do contribute by granting employee time or financing maintainers, typically targeting dependencies identified within their own software supply chains.
8. Conclusion: An International Responsibility
Rory: Is there a risk that Germany and Europe end up funding infrastructure that other global competitors simply free-ride upon?
Laia: The projects we support are global, and we coordinate internationally through bodies such as the UN and the Internet Governance Forum. Furthermore, other European nations—including France and the UK—as well as the Digital Commons EDIC consortium, are advancing their own initiatives to sustain shared digital infrastructure.
Rory: It is a vital initiative. Laia, thank you very much for joining Epistemicast.
Laia: Thank you very much.
Transcript published by Epistemicast and generated by NotebookLM.
