Academic Open Source Program Offices in France[Open Source Program Offices académiques en France]

Université Grenoble Alpes inaugurated France's first academic Open Source Program Office (OSPO) in September 2025. This event provided the opportunity to organize a satellite workshop whose objective was to initiate reflections to define a framework for future academic OSPOs at the national level. The main points emerging from these reflections are first that OSPOs should be positioned within research divisions of institutions, address all disciplines, and support both open source practices (for the dissemination of free software) and inner source practices (for internal development or non-free software dissemination). Essential competencies include legal, technical, documentary and community management expertise. The composition of the OSPO, beyond a permanent team, should rely on disciplinary representatives. OSPOs should include services aimed at facilitating open source development: helpdesk support (single point of contact), training, animation, cataloging, legal assistance, and connection to central services, particularly technology transfer offices. National coordination appears necessary alongside institutional investments, to articulate initiatives and to act on certain points such as forge sovereignty, recognition in careers of software developments and contributions. From this perspective, it is necessary to find a balance between national policy and institutional initiatives, while building collaborative networks at national and international scales.