New fellowship program launched to support open source projects

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 look after projects as core developers. They play a vital role in the open source community, not only managing and developing the code, but also acting as a point of contact for the community. However, their work is often invisible and unpaid.

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After the pilot phase, the program aims to complement the Foundation’s offering and cover typical tasks of maintainers such as technical review, community management, release engineering and security triage. Tailored offers for technologies or communities are also possible.

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The Sovereign Tech Fund is an offer from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. Recently, the foundation, among others, supported the GNOME project with 1 million euros and has invested more than 15 million euros in 40 technology projects since its inception.

Maintainer community shapes the fellowship program

To better tailor the new fellowship program to the needs of maintainers, Sovereign Tech Fund has launched a pilot program Survey of 536 maintainers to be done.

Accordingly, there is a significant need for direct support for the group of escorts; in particular, action is needed in the way their work is remunerated. In addition, the programme should take into account the range of needs of escorts, who are often employed in a variety of employments and have different professional and social opportunities. And finally, the programme should also include coaching and development opportunities.

Application phase from the 3rd trimester

The Foundation has initially considered a pilot phase for its fellowship program that takes these challenges into account. The application phase is scheduled to begin at the end of the third quarter of 2024 and will support selected maintainers from the fourth quarter. The Sovereign Tech Fund aims to be able to support pilot projects before 2025 and continuously evaluate its work.

His Vision for the Fellowship Programme Tech Fund provides detailed information on its website. Interested maintainers will be notified via newsletter about the start of the application phase.

(RME)