The SDVoF initiative is driven by the European automotive industry and by the goal to reinforce the industry’s strategic autonomy. Considering the global nature of the industry, participants consider it essential to be able to use the outcomes of the initiative in all regions and to drive standards on the global market. European leadership on the one hand, and openness and collaboration with the broad ecosystem, including companies from other regions, on the other hand, is a key success factor.

The different levels of the initiative allow for three degrees of participation:

Strategic governance level: the participation in the SDV Sherpa Governance Group of representatives of EU headquartered OEMs, Tiers, and Associations, which is facilitated by DG CONNECT and supported by the Co-ordination and Support Action under the Chips JU FEDERATE, ensures that the direction and vision of the initiative and its projects are aligned with the objective of reinforcing the competitiveness of the European automotive industry.

Participants in EU-funded projects: Contractors (partners and associated partners) supporting the orchestration of the initiative and its implementation are subject to the participation rules for the instruments funding these projects.  As of 1 January 2025, projects FEDERATE, HAL4SDV and Shift2SDV (all three Chips JU) are considered projects under the SDVoF initiative. The portfolio is planned to be extended in 2025 through new contracts funded under the Chips Joint Undertaking and the Horizon Europe Partnerships CCAM and 2ZERO. The participation of new partners and associated partners in running projects under the SDVoF initiative must be approved by the participants of the respective projects making sure it supports the initiative’s goals. Details on rights and obligations are fixed through consortia agreements between partners and associated partners on project level. In future, notions like “linked projects” or Framework Partnership Agreements may be considered for supporting tighter collaboration across EU-funded projects.Open European SDVoF Ecosystem: It allows all interested stakeholders from any region in the world to participate in the SDVoF ecosystem through open conferences, workshops, or open-source communities:

• Staying informed by joining the Open European SDVoF Forum: All interested SDV stakeholders are invited to join free of charge the Open European SDVoF Forum via registration on the Federate Website. All Open SDVoF Forum members get regular updates about the European SDVoF initiative, invitations to networking events and information about relevant conferences.
• Contributing to and using Open-Source Ecosystem results: Since a large part of the outcomes of the initiative will be open-source, they will be open by nature to any actors in the open-source ecosystem, under the limitations of the OSS license and the rules of the relevant open-source foundations or entities. Actors outside the EU-funded projects will be able to contribute to OSS projects and use their results. This only applies to results of projects under the SDVoF initiative which are in the public domain (e.g. as an open-source activity). Participants in the SDVoF initiative, by their active contributions and strategic steering, will be the ones driving. This put them in a privileged position for exploiting the results.