He Government of Spain has approved the award of 19 million of euros for boost the semiconductor industry in Europe through research, innovation and chip manufacturing programs. The award, approved in the last Council of Ministers, has been carried out within the framework of the Chip Joint Undertaking of the European Union (Chips JU).
On the one hand, the authorities have approved 6.5 million euros to finance Spain’s participation in five quantum pilot lines, whose main objective is to promote the development of quantum chips, and address one of the main problems of quantum technology: the manufacturing of these chips is extremely complicated, in addition to being an expensive process.
These pilot lines, which address this problem and ultimately aim to enable Europe to market this type of chips, have among their attractions that they are open access. This means that both universities and large European companies, as well as startups and SMEs, can use them.
Among the beneficiary entities of this amount there are both research organizations and companies. Among the first, the entities have been the Institut de Physics d’Altes Energies (IFAE), the Fundacio Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques (ICFO), the CSIC, the Tecnalia Research and Innovation Foundation, the Carlos III University of Madrid, the IMDEA Nanociencia institute, the University of Murcia and the Fundacio Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques (ICFO). Among the companies, Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, Quantitation and Arquimea Research Center.
In addition to this item of 6.5 million, the Government has approved the award of more than 12.3 million euros to 36 R&D projects of Spanish private entities, both SMEs and large companies, also within the framework of Chips JU. The projects financed by this item address the main technological and industrial challenges in Europe. They belong to areas considered key, such as cybersecurity, high-performance computing, sustainable manufacturing and the development of RISC-V-based processors.
These 36 projects will receive 12.3 million euros from Spain, 13.1 million euros from Chips JU and around 20 million euros from the contributions of the winning companies. Among the companies that will receive these amounts are Idneo Technologies, Sensing & Control Systems, Tttechauto Spain, Avant Studio Proyectos, N Vision Systems and Technologies, Semidynamics Technology Services, Knowdledge Development for Pof, Acorde Technologies, Tecnologías Servicios Telemáticos y Sistemas, Safran Electronics & Defense Spain, Hi Iberia Ingeniería y Proyectos, Nommon Solutions and Technologies. Albora Technologies, Pal Robotics, Schneider Electric España, Cuerva Energía, Alexandra Espinosa Hortelano, Ingeteam Power Technology and Research Institute, Power Smart Control, Fagor Automation S, SP Control Technologies, Quintauris España, Openchip Softyware Technologies, Inbrain Neuroelectronics or Digitanimal.
These two actions are complementary to others previously approved within the framework of Chips JU, such as the Integrated Photonics Pilot Linewhich involved a public investment of more than 66.5 million euros, and which had an impact in Spain of more than 133 million euros. Also the call for Competence Centers, endowed with a subsidy of 8 million euros.
