The Rust Foundation, steward of the Rust programming language, has launched the Rust Innovation Lab, offering fiscal sponsorship to relevant, well-funded open source projects. The inaugural hosted project is Rustls, a memory-safe, high-performance TLS (Transport Layer Security) library, the foundation said.

Announced September 3, Rust Innovation Lab sponsorship includes governance, legal, networking, marketing, and administrative support. Creation of the lab comes at a pivotal moment, the foundation said. Rust adoption has accelerated across both industry and open source, and many projects written in Rust have matured into critical pieces of global software infrastructure, the foundation stressed. With Rust becoming more deeply integrated in everything from cloud platforms to embedded systems, a growing need has arisen for neutral, community-led governance, the foundation said. Reliable institutional backing will support these projects in remaining sustainable, secure, and vendor-independent, the foundation added.

The inaugural sponsored project, Rustls, responds to a growing demand for secure, memory-safe TLS in safety-critical environments. The library is used to build secure connections in the Rust ecosystem, the foundation said. Rustls demonstrates Rust’s ability to deliver security and performance in one of the most-sensitive areas of modern software infrastructure, the foundation said.

The Rust Foundation welcomes funded open source projects to learn more at RustFoundation.org. Projects in the lab gain visibility across the Rust ecosystem, increasing their ability to attract contributors, partners, and financial support. Participants also benefit from peer networking opportunities to share lessons and best practices, said the foundation.