The initiative responds to a persistent investment gap in fundamental software research and public software infrastructure. It originated in the Netherlands at the Dutch Association for Software Engineering (VERSEN), which is facilitated by CWI. The initiators are Tanja Vos (Universitat Politècnica de València/Open University) and Tijs van der Storm (CWI/University of Amsterdam).

The SRIA identifies four research priorities requiring an additional investment of around €1 billion over the next eight years: trustworthy, secure and compliant software systems; large-scale software systems capable of evolving sustainably; sovereign and resilient digital infrastructure; and human and organisational capacity. According to Van der Storm, software underpins Europe’s digital infrastructure, from AI and healthcare to energy and mobility, and Europe must control these software foundations itself to secure digital sovereignty, trustworthy AI and long-term competitiveness.

The agenda calls for clear institutional responsibility for strategic software within the European Commission, and for a sustainable European programme bringing together the Commission, member states, industry and the research community. Kleiner raised the possibility of a Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership set up by the EU to carry out large-scale, high-impact research, development or infrastructure projects. Experts from academia and industry, including Siemens, Canon, Ericsson and Software Heritage, contributed to developing the agenda.