Europe doubles investments in semiconductor research within ENIAC joint undertaking

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: The ENIAC Joint Undertaking launched its new Call for proposals, boosted by the strong participation of the funding authorities who committed in 2011 grants up to 175 M€, an increase of 100 percent over the previous year.

The grants translate in R&D projects with total eligible costs of about 400 M€. The ENIAC Joint Undertaking confirms herewith its role as the leading European public-private partnership in nanoelectronics chartered to increase and leverage the public and private investments by bringing together the ENIAC member States, the European Union and the R&D actors associated in AENEAS.

The ENIAC Joint Undertaking generated R&D activities in value of more than 1 B€ since its inception in 2008, taking now a big step towards fulfilling its objective to approach 3 B€ by 2013.

Andreas Wild, executive director of the ENIAC Joint Undertaking, said: “After a relatively slow start due to the inherent complexity and novelty of the setup, the ENIAC Joint Undertaking made lately considerable progress in achieving synergies among the national objectives, the European priorities and the R&D initiatives of the private sector. Consequently, we experience now a significant increase in commitments: this trend shall be continued and strengthened in order to secure the future growth, competitiveness and sustainability of the European nanoelectronics industry.”

The ENIAC Joint Undertaking receives each year funding commitments from the ENIAC member States, adds its own grants based on funding from the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union, and executes open and competitive calls to select the most impactful project proposals for funding.

The proposals submitted must be within the scope of the strategic agenda, as expressed in the Annual Work Programme proposed by the ENIAC Industry and Research Committee and approved by the ENIAC Public Authorities Board. The members of the ENIAC Industry and Research Committee are nominated by AENEAS. The ENIAC Public Authorities Board is composed of the European Commission and the ENIAC member States.