UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has partnered with OpenUK to offer open source guidance for the public sector.
OpenUK, the not-for-profit organization representing the UK's open technology sector, has contracted with UKRI to provide advice covering how the UK public sector produces and curates open source software, and how public sector bodies can use and Open source software support.
OpenUK said the work requires understanding how community development and curation occurs, how to encourage maintainers and contributors to long-term project management, and how to acquire open source software.
State of Digital Government review published in January covers several examples of successful open source projects in the UK public sector. One of these is Slough Borough Council, which is using Defra funding to plant a digital urban forest. This involves installing environmental sensors among newly planted trees in 31 city sites. The sensors will improve environmental policy outcomes by measuring the health of the local environment, contributing to an open source environmental research database, and providing educational opportunities for local schools.
DOJ Project Splink this is another project mentioned in the report. The tool is capable of linking a million records per minute for use in justice applications (such as identifying the route of offenders). It has been adopted by public and private sector organizations around the world.
Discussing the recommendations, Richard Gunn, UKRI's program director, said: “The OpenUK recommendations highlight the great opportunity for the UK to lead the world in supporting the development and maintenance of open source software, building on national strengths and international best practice to drive innovation and impact.”
OpenUK's own research has shown that the UK maintains its number one position in Europe for open source software and that open source accounts for 27% of the UK's digital gross value added (GVA), a measure of economic performance.
According to Anil Madhavapeddy, professor of planetary computing at the University of Cambridge, technology transfer between cutting-edge research and public adoption has accelerated significantly over the past three decades thanks to open source.
“The rise of cloud computing, large-scale data processing and formal verification can be attributed to code first written in research organizations,” he said. “We need this innovation cycle now more than ever to keep pace with advances in artificial intelligence and ensure that the societal impacts that arise from it are fair and equitable.”
black duck Open Source Security and Risk Analysis A 2025 report found that open source software was the most popular approach to software development and release, and Harvard Business School researchers reported that the open source market was valued at $8.8 trillion. The ClearlyDefined project tracks more than 55 million software components available under an open source license.
“At this stage we want to update the world on the work we've done so far, why it's important and what we're currently working on,” said Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK. “The UK led the way with the world's first open source policy for its public sector, but we have not kept up with the changes and the pace of adoption.
“The work we do will be forward-thinking and allow the UK, Europe's leader in open source, to once again lead by example by placing a well-governed open source ecosystem at the heart of a sustainable software infrastructure. This work will not be isolationist and has potential benefits beyond the UK, with global impact.”
