(AGENPARL) – Wed 30 April 2025 Fondazione Chips-IT proud partner of the coordination team of the EU Chips Design Platform
Twelve European partners unite to open advanced design tools, training and funding to Europe’s fabless innovators.
PAVIA (Italy), April 30th, 2025 — A coalition of twelve leading European institutions—including Fondazione Chips-IT – has been chosen under the European Chips Act to launch and coordinate the EU Chip Design Platform – a one-stop gateway providing fabless startups, SMEs and research teams with seamless access to advanced semiconductor design tools, expert training and dedicated funding. By uniting Europe’s top talent and infrastructure, the platform will democratize chip design and accelerate innovation continent-wide.
Semiconductors power every facet of modern life—from our smartphones to life-saving medical devices—and the EU Chips Act underscores Europe’s commitment to growing its share of the global market. Complementing new pilot lines that develop next-generation fabrication technologies, the Design Platform will serve as the Act’s central vehicle for nurturing home-grown, fabless ventures.
Hosted on a secure, cloud-based environment, the platform grants users immediate entry to commercial electronic design automation (EDA) suites, comprehensive IP libraries, pilot-line processes and a shared repository of both proprietary and open-source design IP. End-to-end support will shepherd projects from initial concept through fabrication, packaging and validation – eliminating traditional barriers and shortening development cycles.
The consortium plans to onboard its inaugural cohort of startups and SMEs by early 2026. In addition to technical resources, participants will benefit from a robust accelerator program: incubation services, one-on-one mentorship and targeted financial aid designed to transform pioneering ideas into market-ready silicon.
Fondazione Chips-IT will lead to the definition of user access criteria and eligibility, develop bespoke training material, manage all user-support activities and coordinate startup incubation and acceleration pathways. Working in concert with consortium partners, Fondazione Chips-IT will ensure that emerging research groups and ambitious startups alike can effortlessly navigate the platform and tap into its full breadth of services.
“This platform marks a pivotal moment for European semiconductor design,” said Carlo Reita, Director of Fondazione Chips-IT. “By bringing together diverse expertise and cutting-edge tools, we are empowering the next generation of innovators to push the boundaries of technology. Our vision is to foster a vibrant ecosystem where creativity thrives, and groundbreaking ideas rapidly evolve into tangible solutions that benefit society and reinforce Europe’s position as a global leader in chip development.”
The Platform Coordination Team of the EU Chips Design Platform consists of Fondazione Chips-IT (Italy), imec (Belgium), the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA, France), Fraunhofer (Germany), Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP, Germany), Silicon Austria Labs (Austria), CSIC (Spain), International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (Portugal), Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands), Tampere University (Finland), CVUT (Czech Republic) and AGH University of Science and Technology (Poland). The grant agreement with the Chips JU, through the European Union’s Digital Europe program, is ongoing and will be signed later this year. The project will run from 2025 until the end of 2028.
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Representatives of the twelve consortium members gathered at the International Iberian Nanotechnology laboratory in Braga, Portugal.
About Fondazione Chips-IT
Fondazione Chips-IT is a research and technology organization dedicated to advancing integrated circuit (IC) design research across Italy and Europe. By bringing together leading experts from industry, academia and research centers, it spearheads cutting-edge R&D projects, develops novel design methodologies and tools, and fosters technology transfer and knowledge exchange in semiconductor innovation. Its core mission is to push the boundaries of IC design – investigating next-generation chip architectures, optimizing electronic design automation workflows and nurturing new design paradigms. Being pivotal point of the Italian semiconductor ecosystem and through collaborative research programs and tailored collaborations, Fondazione Chips-IT empowers researchers, startups, SMEs and corporates with the expertise and infrastructure needed to compete globally and shape a resilient, future-ready semiconductor ecosystem.