European Commission

MEMO

European Electronics Strategy on track - €5billion investment partnership boosting Europe’s electronic components and systems design and manufacturing capabilities

The European Commission has presented an innovation investment package including plans for five Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) in EU-funded research, representing €25 billion over the next seven years (see official IP/13/668). This includes a proposal for a JTI bringing together the EU and Member States in Electronic Components & Systems (ECSEL).

Setting up the new JTI is a key action of the May 2013 European Strategy for micro- and nanoelectronic components and systems.

Why is this important?

Electronic components and systems support innovation and competitiveness in all economic sectors. Cars, planes, trains, medical and health equipment, home appliances, energy networks and security systems will all benefit from advanced European capabilities and capacities to design and manufacture state of the art electronic components and systems.

What is the Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL) initiative?

The new Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL) Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) is a merger of the ARTEMIS initiative on embedded systems and the ENIAC initiative on nano-electronics that both were set up in 2008. It also incorporates research and innovation on smart systems.

ECSEL is expected to start in early 2014 and to run for 10 years. ECSEL will bring together large and small companies, world-class European research and technology organisations and academia.

In particular three private industrial associations (ARTEMISIA , AENEAS and EPoSS) will be involved, from the areas of micro-/nanoelectronics, smart integrated systems and embedded/cyber-physical systems, joining partners from 25 EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.


What are the main goals of the initiative?

·  to reverse the decline of the EU's global share in the electronic components and systems area;

·  to maintain Europe's leadership in areas as embedded systems, semiconductor equipment and materials supply, the design of complex electronic systems and e.g. energy efficient electronic components;

·  to improve the environment, increase energy efficiency, increase security;

·  to bring innovations in novel areas as cyber physicals systems;

·  to put Europe's best brains together to create effective research and innovation solutions;

·  to build on Europe's industrial landscape by supporting innovative SMEs and strengthening clusters in promising new areas;

·  to underpin the next generation of key technologies supporting innovation through a long-term strategic research and innovation agenda.

·  to develop a strategic research and innovation agenda.

What is the challenge?

Electronic components and systems are essential for Europe's industrial landscape. They strengthen product and productivity innovation across the entire economy and play a critical role in addressing societal challenges. But as Europe's industries face fierce global competition, high research costs and the very fast-pace of technology development, cooperation, pooling of resources and building on expertise is needed to bring research faster to market and stimulate demand for European produced electronic components and systems.

What results and benefits do we expect?

The Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership JTI will

·  supply key technologies to support innovation in all sectors of the economy and to ensure the best use of these technologies for economic growth.

·  underpin the implementation of other EU policies particularly on environment and industrial competitiveness.

·  overcome obstacles to effective research and innovation and attract private investment and facilitate the participation for actors involved in research.

·  create a mechanism for industry to set a long-term strategic research and innovation agenda, create the necessary critical mass, leverage private investment, facilitate knowledge sharing, reduce risks, lower costs and reduce time to market.

How much will this cost?

The ECSEL JTI is likely to have a budget of €4.8 billion, with an EU contribution up to €1.2 billion, matched by the contribution from Member States. The industrial partners will contribute at least half of the total costs of around €2.4 billion. The administrative costs will not exceed €40 million and will be borne by the EU and industry.


How will it be managed?

ECSEL will be managed by an independent public private partnership body (Joint Undertaking). The strategic decisions will be taken by a Governing Board, comprising private members (from the associations ARTEMISIA, AENEAS and EPoSS), Member States and the European Commission representing the EU. A Public Authorities Board of the participating Member States and European Commission will take funding decisions. The private members will define the strategic research and innovation agendas.

Open calls for proposals will be used to implement the work plans of the Joint Undertaking with co-funding by the EU and the participating Member States based on an independent evaluation and synergies with national priorities.

What have the current JTIs achieved so far?

The current ENIAC and ARTEMIS JTIs provided a major opportunity to cooperate across Europe, create critical mass and leverage investments. This capability has been convincingly demonstrated by the ENIAC JU’s success in jump-starting the implementation of the Key Enabling Technologies recommendations in nanoelectronics with five manufacturing pilot lines worth €730 million and by the ARTEMIS JU’s first launch of two large-scale innovation pilot projects worth €150 million.

In the period 2008-2012, the two JTIs supported altogether more than 100 projects for a total cost in excess of €2.8 billion with a public funding of €1.126 billion (EU + Member States), involving more than 2000 organisations (1260 unique participations) of which around 40% are SMEs, 30% large enterprises and 30% research and higher education organisations.

For example: The largest project in the ARTEMIS portfolio is CESAR - Cost-Efficient methods and processes for SAfety Relevant embedded systems. For key transportation domains (automotive, aerospace and rail) it developed ultra-reliable embedded systems in order to meet societal demands for increased mobility and safety. For ENIAC a clear success is the E3Car, which overcame the main challenges regarding the electrical vehicle using advanced semiconductor components. An increase in energy efficiency by 35% in certain components has been achieved.

If ARTEMIS and ENIAC are a success, why are they being merged?

Bringing ENIAC and ARTEMIS together under a common roof will build on their respective strengths while unlocking additional synergies. The ECSEL JTI will support an integrated European strategy in electronic components and systems allowing the development of a sustainable electronic components and systems industrial ecosystem, and providing effective means for European stakeholders to keep pace with technology, to get access to advanced components and to consolidate their leadership in electronic systems for key economic sectors.

Useful links

Nanoelectronics: http://www.eniac.eu and www.aeneas-office.eu

Embedded systems: www.artemis-ju.eu and www.artemis-ia.eu

Smart integrated systems: www.smart-systems-integration.org

Electronics: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/electronics-strategy-europe

Contacts
Email: Tel: +32.229.57361 Twitter: @RyanHeathEU

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