The actions launched in the context of the Chips for Europe Initiative are in their starting stage.
The Chips for Europe Initiative (also referred to as ‘the Initiative’), created by the Chips Act intends to bridge the gap between the Union’s advanced research and innovation capabilities and their sustainable industrial exploitation, promoting capacity building to enable design, production and systems integration in next-generation semiconductor technologies – aiming at setting up a full ecosystem for providing a European-scale R&I capacity environment. By means of the Chips Act, the Chips JU was entrusted with the primary implementation of the Initiative, particularly operational objectives 1 to 4, by actions set out in its work programme.
The core actions to be launched under the Initiative include:
Pilot lines
Design Platform
Competence Centres
Quantum actions
2024 calls
In 2024, six calls were launched under the Chips for Europe Initiative:
- one call for Pilot Line, which included Chips 2024-CPL-5, HORIZON-Chips-2024-RIA-CPL-5, and DIGITAL-Chips-2024-SG-CPL-5
- two calls for Chips Competence Centres: Chips-2024-SG-CCC-1 and Chips-2024-CSA-CCC-2 for the CSA to organise the network of CCCs
- one call for the Design Platform (Chips-2024-CDP-1), including Chips-2024-CFEOI-CDP-1 call for expression of interest for the selection of the hosting consortium for the central infrastructure and Chips-2024-CSA-CDP-1, CSA for the coordination of the Design Platform
- two Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) calls for quantum technologies (QAC-1 and QAC-2)
Most calls completed submission, evaluation, and selection in 2024, with grant agreements planned for 2025. The quantum technologies calls will be evaluated in early 2025, enabling selected consortia to submit proposals for Specific Grant Agreements later that year. All calls followed a single-phase procedure.
The timing of the calls under the Chips for Europe Initiative shows consistent patterns, with most calls taking around 90 days from launch to full proposal submission and an additional 36 to 51 days for evaluation and decision by the Public Authorities Board (PAB).
The total duration from launch to decision typically ranged between 105 and 154 days, depending on the call. Time to grant signature from the submission deadline varied more widely, reaching up to 279 days for some pilot line calls, reflecting the complexity of negotiation and setup processes.
Calls timeline
Overview
Since the beginning of the programme
Since the beginning of the implementation of the Chips for Europe Initiative, the Chips JU has launched ten calls for proposals: 5 calls for pilot lines, 1 call for competence centres, 1 call for a network of competence centres, 1 call for a design platform, and 2 calls to establish framework partnership agreements for quantum calls.
During 2024, proposals for the four first Calls for Pilot Line (‘CPLs’) were selected and negotiated. The Hosting Agreements for three of them were signed at the end of 2024. The Hosting Agreement for the fourth Pilot Line is expected to be signed in April 2025. Following the abovementioned four Calls for Pilot Lines in 2023, the fifth pilot line call has been launched in 2024 and addresses integrated photonics technologies.
The budgets for the Initiative calls reflect the complexity and scale of the actions supported, particularly for pilot lines requiring multiple interlinked calls. The work plan sets maximum and indicative amounts to allow for flexibility across funding programmes (Horizon Europe, Digital Europe), and joint procurements. Overall, ten calls were launched with a total indicative EU contribution of €2.005 million and additional national funding.
Most calls are co-funded by the Joint Undertaking and the participating states, except for specific coordination and support actions fully funded under the Digital Europe programme. Budgetary details for Framework Partnership Agreements will be defined in future Specific Grant Agreements.
Submitted proposals
Only few actors in the ECS ecosystem are up to the ambition and the challenge of the PLs, and the design platform actions. Consequently, these respective calls were answered by single consortia.
The selected proposals for the FPA calls will be known in 2025.
Selected proposals
2 Ineligible
Support per category of partner
Given the central objective on capacity building of leading-edge technologies, the Chips for Europe Initiative part of the programme, is not reaching the KPIs on SME participation and funding of 1/3 and 20% respectively. SMEs are not able to contribute in the same degree as the big RTOs to the construction of pilot lines and the design platform. However, the access and services to be offered by the different actions mainly target SMEs and start-ups.
All partners for the pilot lines and the design platform are research organisations. For competence centres, some partners are industrial as indicated below. As competence centres are targeting support actions and re skilling SME participation is lower than in HE R&I calls.
