Scaling national open-source products across Europe: lessons learned from two years of cross-border state collaboration

<p>In late 2023, DINUM (the French Interministerial Digital Directorate) set out to answer a simple question: How do you turn promising national open-source products into shared European products? Two years later, after 2 consortium projects, cross-border hackathons, and several experiments with EU funding mechanisms, we have accumulated a set of practical insights forged through coordination with other EU partners</p> <p>This talk offers an experience-based walkthrough of what worked, what didn’t, and what we wish we had known earlier. Attendees will leave with concrete takeaways for initiating or strengthening cross-border open-source collaborations within public administrations. We hope to invite partners like Zendis or the Lisbon Council to bring their perspective to these cooperations.</p> <p><strong>1. Why we started</strong></p> <p>For some of DINUM products communities grew rapidly inside France, but we wanted to test whether it could become part of Europe’s shared digital infrastructure (Eurostack). Our goal was not to “export” code, but to evaluate:</p> <ul> <li>how to co-develop open-source modules with other Member States,</li> <li>how to make reuse realistic across different administrative cultures</li> <li>and how to try to pool efforts and resources and leverage EU funding to support sustainability rather than siloted prototypes.</li> </ul> <p><strong>2. What we tried (and what we learned)</strong></p> <p>This objective can be accomplished through the establishment of a European strategy for the funding and development of open source products led by member states</p> <ul> <li>Seek out other enthusiastic European partners capable of co-developing or utilizing open source digital products to increase the number of active users in the EU</li> <li>Pinpoint the most appropriate European funds for these topics to pool and leverage national investments</li> <li>Submit applications for relevant project calls with suitable partners</li> <li>Promote awareness within member states, particularly among product/project managers, about the opportunities to work with open source with European partners.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Use case 1 : The 100Days Challenge: iterative hackathons, real code</strong> <strong>Use case 2 : GovTech4All: 16 partners, 3 pilots, 3 sustainability challenges</strong></p> <p>We also see this talk as an opportunity to inform and connect with European partners across various administrations to encourage cooperation and lay the groundwork for future projects</p>