The Rust Innovation Lab (RIL) is a place in which projects working with the Rust Programming Language can develop and mature, supported by the Rust Foundation acting as the project’s ‘fiscal sponsor’.
The RIL is managed and governed by the Rust Foundation and its Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has the final say on which projects are accepted into the RIL.
The RIL is a place to host projects that fill a gap for Rust developers or serve as great examples of what Rust can achieve. It accepts both mature and experimental projects. As a lab, it is happy to serve as a temporary home while projects are getting started, but it can also be a place for mature projects to live permanently.
The RIL supports fully funded Rust initiatives with the structure, stewardship, and administrative backing they need to succeed—giving ambitious ideas the space and stability to grow into lasting parts of the Rust ecosystem.
The following factors make a project a compelling fit for the RIL. Not every project will excel on every dimension, but stronger candidates will demonstrate several of these qualities:
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Showcases Rust's strengths — The project demonstrates what Rust is capable of, serving as a compelling example of Rust's value proposition. These are important, influential, or impactful Rust projects that highlight the language's benefits.
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Fills a gap for Rust developers — The project addresses a real need for people writing or using Rust. This could be tooling, libraries, infrastructure, specifications, or other resources that make Rust developers more productive, secure, or effective.
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RIL adds unique value — The Rust Foundation's connections to the Rust Project, Rust community, and Rust-focused organizations provide something the project couldn't easily get elsewhere. The Foundation's experience with Rust and its ecosystem is a genuine asset to the project.
Some gaps are obvious: "I need to debug my Rust code" is a clear need that rust-gdb addresses directly. Other gaps require more explanation. They may involve strategic concerns about Rust's future, or needs that only become apparent when you understand the broader ecosystem dynamics.
Both kinds of gaps are valid. However, the less obvious the gap, the more clearly the project should articulate why it matters to Rust developers and Rust's future. A project filling a non-obvious gap should make a compelling case for why that gap is important.
The Rust Innovation Lab takes its role as a lab seriously. That means it exists to explore, experiment, and evolve. Projects in the RIL can take many paths: some will mature and spin out into independent, self-sustaining efforts; others may continue to live and grow within the Lab. And some will discover that their original direction isn't the right one. When that happens, a project might pivot, pause, or conclude, sometimes to return later in a different form. None of these outcomes is a failure. They are exactly what a healthy lab is designed to produce. The RIL is committed to giving every project the support it needs to learn quickly, adapt thoughtfully, and have the best possible chance to succeed—whatever "success" ultimately looks like.
The Rust Foundation will provide on-boarding support, financial and legal support, promotional and infrastructure support, to RIL projects, in line with the needs and desires of each project.
Please read our eligibility requirements to determine if the Rust Innovation Lab will be the right choice for hosting your project.
If you’ve read all the information there, you believe you meet the eligibility requirements, and you think the Rust Innovation Lab and your project would make a good match, then please fill out the application and/or send us a message at ril@rustfoundation.org to start a conversation.
Check out our FAQ for answers to other questions.