imec Coordinates EU Chips Design Platform
LEUVEN, Belgium, May 2, 2025 — A consortium of 12 European partners, coordinated by imec, has been selected in the framework of the European Chips Act to develop the EU Chips Design Platform. Funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking, the platform will facilitate access to advanced semiconductor design infrastructure, training, and capital for fabless semiconductor startups, small and medium enterprises, and research organizations.
The EU Chips Design Platform will enable fabless companies to access the resources they need quickly and efficiently via a cloud-based virtual environment. By providing the necessary resources, the initiative aims to democratize and foster semiconductor innovation across Europe, specifically for chip design.
Representatives of the 12 consortium members gathered at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga, Portugal. Courtesy of imec.
The platform aims to onboard the first startups and small and medium enterprises by early 2026, providing them with low-barrier access to European design capabilities, including route-to-chip fabrication, packaging, and testing. It will offer customized support to access commercial electronic design automation tools, intellectual property libraries, EU Chips Act pilot line technologies, and access to design intellectual property repositories, including open-source options.
Additionally, the platform will feature a startup support program with incubation, acceleration, and mentoring activities next to financial assistance to help early-stage companies on the path to commercialization.
The platform coordination team of the EU Chips Design Platform consists of imec, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics, Silicon Austria Labs, Fondazione Chips-IT, Spanish National Research Council, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Eindhoven University of Technology, Tampere University, CVUT, and AGH University of Krakow. The grant agreement with the Chips Joint Undertaking, through the EU’s Digital Europe program, is ongoing and will be signed this year. The project will run from 2025 through 2028.
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