6.5 Million Euros for AI-Native Operating Systems and Their Security
With a research budget of 6.5 million euros, the Agentur für Innovation in der Cybersicherheit GmbH (Cyberagentur) announced the “Artificial Intelligence as Operating System” (AI-as-OS) research program on October 28, 2026. The program focuses on the development of future-proof AI-native operating systems. Applications for participation are accepted through December 10, 2026.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly taking on tasks autonomously in digital systems. Leading technology companies are already deeply integrating AI into their operating systems and hardware. This raises a fundamental security question: How can computer systems be designed and protected when artificial intelligence is no longer merely integrated as an additional feature, but will instead take over key control functions of an operating system in the future?
With “AI-as-OS,” the Cyberagentur is going beyond the integration of AI as a mere add-on. The research program aims to investigate whether AI itself can become the central control element of a computer system and what security architecture would be required for this. The focus is on three areas of research:
- AI-centric operating system architectures,
- AI-native core mechanisms for resource and process control, as well as
- new approaches to control, security, and stability of these systems.
The business and scientific communities are working intensively to expand existing system architectures through intelligent technologies. This makes one question increasingly urgent: How do we ensure that artificial intelligence—which is becoming increasingly deeply integrated into the control of computer systems—remains safe and controllable itself? “With AI-as-OS, we aim to explore precisely these fundamentals. We hope that the recent partnering event has given rise to strong research consortia that will now participate in our call for proposals with scientifically sound, innovative, and even unconventional approaches,” explains Dr. Philippe Krajsic, Research Officer for Key Technologies at the Cyberagentur.
Basic research for the cybersecurity of tomorrow
It remains to be seen whether AI-native operating systems are technically feasible and offer advantages over existing architectures in terms of security, efficiency, and stability. These very questions form the focus of the research. In the long term, the results are expected to enable new approaches to securing digital infrastructures and to build technological expertise for the digital sovereignty of Germany and Europe.
The research program has an estimated contract volume of 6.5 million euros, excluding VAT. The pre-commercial procurement, modeled after an innovation partnership, is open to research institutions, companies, startups, and interdisciplinary research consortia.
Applications for participation may be submitted electronically via the federal government’s procurement platform at https://www.evergabe-online.de/tenderdetails.html?2&id=901990 by 12:00 p.m. on December 10, 2026.