New fellowship program launched to promote open-source projects
The Sovereign Tech Fund is expanding its open-source funding offering with a new fellowship program for project maintainers.
(Image: Imilian/Shutterstock.com)
- Robert Lippert
To further strengthen the security and availability of open-source projects, the Sovereign Tech Fund has announced a new funding program specifically for maintainers, who are the main developers of the projects. They play a crucial role in the open-source community, as they not only manage and develop the code, but also act as a point of contact for the community. However, their work is often invisible and unpaid.
After a pilot phase, the program will complement the foundation's offerings and cover typical tasks of maintainers, such as technical reviews, community management, release engineering and security triage. However, offers tailored to specific technologies or communities are also possible.
The Sovereign Tech Fund is an offer from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. Most recently, the foundation supported the Gnome project, among others, with 1 million euros and has invested over 15 million euros in 40 technology projects since its inception.
Maintainer community shapes the fellowship program
In order to better align the new fellowship program with the needs of maintainers, the Sovereign Tech Fund conducted a survey of 536 maintainers in advance.
According to the results, there is a considerable need for direct support for the group of maintainers; in particular, there is a need for action on the way in which their work is remunerated. Furthermore, the program must also consider the range of needs of maintainers, who are often employed in different types of jobs and have different professional and social opportunities. Finally, the program should also include coaching and development opportunities.
Application phase from the third quarter
The foundation has initially planned a pilot phase for its fellowship program that takes these challenges into account. The application phase is scheduled to start at the end of the third quarter of 2024 and support selected maintainers from the fourth quarter onwards. The aim of the Sovereign Tech Fund is to be able to support an initial pilot project from 2025 and continuously evaluate its work.
The Tech Fund has made its vision for the fellowship program available in detail on its website. Interested maintainers will be informed about the start of the application phase by newsletter.
(wid)
