Mission

Digital commons for Europe

Open-source software, open standards, shared digital infrastructure. These are digital commons: tools that are collectively developed, openly governed, and freely adaptable by governments, communities, companies, and individuals. They offer a real alternative to technological dependency.

But no single country can sustain the full ecosystem alone. DC-EDIC pools resources, so the components that Europe depends on remain professionally maintained, interoperable, and available to all.

What DC-EDIC does

Our mandate is structured around five actions, co-funded by the European Union through the Digital Europe Programme.

Build a European community

We work alongside open-source communities across member states, organise tracks at FOSDEM and other events, and maintain relationships with component maintainers. The goal is to connect deployment experience with development priorities.

Open access to funding

We build an expertise hub and one-stop-shop so public administrations and enterprises can find their way through procurement, access migration support, and connect with qualified integrators across borders.

Sustain the components everyone depends on

All modern software depends on open-source infrastructure components, yet their maintenance is chronically underfinanced. Often by individual maintainers worldwide, working without institutional support. This is a resilience gap, not just an investment gap. We are piloting a European Sovereign Tech Fund with Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency: coordinated European investment in critical open digital infrastructure, working with the global community that maintains it.

Bring deployment evidence to policymakers

We share deployment data and operational experience with European policymakers. When the debate turns to procurement directives or Cyber Resilience Act implementation, we contribute what we observe across our national deployments.

Run concrete projects

We run 100-Day Challenges that produce working open-source software where a critical component or integration is missing. Scoped sprints, built in the open, tested with real users. We also coordinate with existing communities and foundations to reinforce what already works. See our first projects.

How we work

Built for adoption. We measure success in people whose Monday morning got better. Software that public servants, developers, and businesses actually use daily is what drives everything we do.

Maintained for the long run. We fund maintainers, secure dependencies, and invest in the work that keeps digital commons reliable. Existing infrastructure that works well deserves sustained investment.

Connected across borders. Five countries already build their own tools. We link them so that what works in one country can serve another. A tool built in France can be adapted in Germany, tested in The Netherlands, deployed in Italy.

Open by default. All software jointly developed within DC-EDIC is released under licences that qualify as both Free Software (Free Software Foundation) and Open Source (Open Source Initiative).

What are digital commons?

Digital commons are digital resources defined by distributed and communal production, ownership, and governance. Their governance includes access and sharing rules designed to sustain both the resource and the community around it, and to prevent any single actor from capturing exclusive control.

This does not preclude commercial use. Many successful businesses are built on and around digital commons. What it does prevent is enclosure: turning a shared resource into a proprietary one.

In practice, digital commons include open-source software, open data, open standards, and shared digital infrastructure. Tools that are collectively governed, openly developed, and freely adaptable by anyone.