The Pilot

Proving The Sovereign Stack with Real Services and Real Partners

What Makes an Ideal Pilot Location

The Sovereign Stack is designed to work in any region willing to collaborate across public, private, and academic sectors. The ideal pilot location has:

• Smart city ambition. A track record of, or appetite for, digital innovation and citizen-centred services
• Scalable but manageable scope. Large enough for meaningful data, small enough for a controlled pilot
• Strong local partnerships. Existing relationships between the local authority, employers, and academic institutions
• Strategic visibility. A profile that attracts attention from national government and EU institutions
• Political alignment. Local and national government eager to demonstrate digital leadership
• Immediate community benefit. Residents and local businesses stand to gain from open data and new digital services

What We’re Building

The pilot has two goals: build the The Sovereign Stack stack, and prove it works by enhancing a real local service.

The Stack

The reusable digital primitives that underpin every The Sovereign Stack service: identity, APIs, data, observability, and documentation. All designed to be AI-ready so that development, testing, and iteration can happen at pace and at high quality. See the White Paper for the full technical framework.

The Service

The stack is only valuable if it solves a real problem. The pilot will take an existing local service, one that the anchor authority and enterprise partner agree needs refreshing, and rebuild or enhance it on the The Sovereign Stack stack.

The specific service will be agreed with partners during mobilisation. It should be something citizens already use, where the current experience falls short: slow, outdated, poorly integrated, or lacking user control. By modernising a service people know, we demonstrate the value of the stack in a way that is immediately tangible.

What Comes Next

Once the stack is proven through the pilot service, it becomes the foundation for further The Sovereign Stack services, starting with FrankMail, a sovereign email platform where users control who can reach them.

Partner Roles

We’re seeking three types of partners to make this pilot succeed:

Anchor Authority

An ambitious local authority that seeks innovation and upgrades to its citizen services

Role:

• Identify an existing citizen-facing service suitable for modernisation
• Provide access to a defined citizen cohort (e.g., council tenants, service users)
• Validate real-world usability and adoption
• Contribute to governance and policy feedback

Value:

• A modernised service built on open, sovereign infrastructure
• Improved citizen experience and trust
• Early access to the The Sovereign Stack stack and future services
• Visibility as a digital innovation leader

Ideal partner: A forward-thinking local authority with existing digital services and a citizen cohort ready to benefit

Enterprise Partner

A private sector business with the skills or reach to co-deliver

Role:

• Work with the anchor authority to select and scope the pilot service
• Provide technical capability, integration expertise, or an employee cohort
• Test enterprise workflows against the The Sovereign Stack stack
• Contribute to commercial viability assessment

Value:

• Early access to a reusable, open digital stack
• Demonstrate corporate digital responsibility and public-sector collaboration
• Input into product and platform direction
• Reference case for future engagements

Ideal partner: A technology company, systems integrator, or major local employer with an interest in open digital infrastructure

Academic Partner

A research institution with a proven track record in digital innovation, AI, public services, or related fields

Role:

• Provide academic rigour to validate the pilot approach and outcomes
• Independent evaluation of architecture, security, and usability
• Student cohort for usability testing
• Research publications and case studies

Value:

• Access to cutting-edge digital identity and public service research
• Real-world deployment for academic study
• Collaboration with industry and government partners
• Contribution to European digital policy

Ideal partner: A university or research institution with a track record in digital identity, AI, public services, or human-computer interaction; one that can support alignment of thinking across the partnership

Deliverables

For Partners

For the Ecosystem

Governance

The pilot operates as a public-private partnership with shared decision-making:

• Joint steering board. Representatives from each partner (anchor authority, enterprise, academic) plus the Sovereign Stack team, meeting monthly
• Service selection. Agreed collectively during mobilisation, based on citizen impact and technical fit
• Open by default. All technical specifications, evaluation criteria, and outcomes published openly
• Independent evaluation. Academic partner provides independent assessment of architecture, security, and outcomes

Governance scales with the initiative. The pilot’s lightweight model establishes the patterns for broader adoption.

Timeline

Budget

Estimated: Up to £1m over 6 months

Model: 50:50 public-private partnership

Team:

• ~5 developers
• 1 project manager
• 1 technical author
• Support/operations

Funding sources under discussion:

• DG CONNECT (Digital Europe Programme)
• UK Government (DSIT, GDS)
• Partner contributions

Success Metrics

Get Involved

We’re actively seeking partners for the first The Sovereign Stack pilot.

If your organisation could serve as an Anchor Authority, Enterprise Partner, or Academic Partner, we’d like to hear from you.

Register interest

We’ll respond within five working days to discuss how your organisation could be involved.

Resources

• The Sovereign Stack Overview : The initiative and principles
• FrankMail : The sovereign email service
• White Paper : Full technical and policy detail

Pilot proposed as part of The Sovereign Stack, a public-private partnership initiative.