Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection as one of the founding projects for the European data space Gaia-X. The goal of the SCS project is to develop a reference implementation for a fully open, modular and federatable cloud stack and to significantly facilitate the operation of cloud platforms through such a generally available, standardized "toolbox", but also through the systematic sharing of operational knowledge. Certificates should help to make levels of digital sovereignty in cloud infrastructures and services easier to assess. In this way, a vital, open infrastructure ecosystem is to be promoted as the basis of digital sovereignty in Europe.

Dr. Manuela Urban is COO and co-lead of the Sovereign Cloud Stack project at the Open Source Business Alliance - Bundesverband für digitale Souveränität e.V., the business association of the German open source industry. Previously, she worked for many years as executive director of various research institutions where open, global collaboration and sharing of resources, especially digital infrastructures and data, has always been common practice. In the Max Planck Society, she was a member of the central IT committee advising the President from 2004-2012. Manuela holds a PhD in Biology and a Master of Business Administration.