Economic analysis of the semiconductor ecosystem – WP2
Our first action is to carry out an economic analysis of the semiconductor ecosystem in the EU27, as well as in a selected number of leading semiconductor countries, to identify the EU’s economic and industrial strengths and weaknesses (SWOT), strategic dependencies, market opportunities and opportunities for cooperation.
The analysis shall include the impact of the COVID crisis and the perspective of the EU green and digital transitions over the coming decade.
The EU semiconductor ecosystem will be analysed across the semiconductor value chain, from raw materials to equipment and manufacturing, and across the family of semiconductor products, from advanced processors to innovative functionalities, and across end-user segments.
The semiconductor ecosystems of 6 leading semiconductor countries will be analysed – Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, the USA and Singapore – in order to identify similarities or complementarities with the EU’s strategic dependencies and industrial strengths. The existing cooperation between the EU and leading semiconductor countries is also identified and will be taken into account.
The end-user segments to be considered in the analysis include most of the application areas of KDT JU: Mobility, Industrial, Aerospace/Defence/Security, Health & Care, Telecommunication, Data processing, home appliances and Audio & Video.
The second action is based on the results of the first action and on existing international roadmaps (e.g. IRDS, IPSR-I, ECS-SRIA, NEREID, etc.), links to other existing CSA’s, (e.g. the ones on graphene and quantum computing), previous studies, knowledge from the consortium and partner network, desk research and brainstorming.
This analysis will identify future next generation and emerging technologies in all the fields of the semiconductor, especially advanced computation and functionalities, which have potential for exploitation through cooperation. Other aims are the creation of a map of international research on future technologies and the comparison of the European status vs. the status of other leading countries, in the topics identified as critical for Europe.
Identification of research areas for international cooperation – WP3
Determination of most interesting countries for international cooperation – WP4
The third action benefits from Actions 1&2 dedicated to the landscape analysis of EU and non-EU semiconductor value chains, and technology scanning and foresight.
It covers:
- Identifying the challenges for which international cooperation driven by public authorities is critically important (infrastructure gaps, skilled workforce gaps, critical application areas…)
- Matching European strengths and gaps with the ones of the countries under consideration for “cooperation areas”
- Filtering selected countries, considering also political, social and economic dimensions.
The fourth action is devoted to:
- Initiate cooperation schemes with non-EU national authorities selected in the framework of the previous objectives
- Support the European Commission (EC) in engaging in bilateral contacts with non-EU national authorities
- Dialog with actors of existing cooperation
- Promote researcher mobility to develop international cooperation
- Set-up an agenda for international cooperation
- Support the EC and national authorities from leading semiconductor countries in exploring implementation measures for joint actions (e. g. joint calls, bilateral collaborations, supply agreements, exchange of researchers, joint strategic roadmaps)
- Define standardisation needs and promote standardisation activities.
Agenda for, and initiation of, international cooperation – WP5
Networking, Communication & Dissemination – WP6
The fifth action, which supports the ICOS project all along its course, aims to:
- Establish links with other European and especially non-European potential research partners (networking)
- Guarantee the exchange of information among the partners, to implement the activities of WPs (communication)
- Disseminate the results of the project towards European research actors and institutions (dissemination).
TITLE: International Cooperation On Semiconductors START-END: January 2023 – December2025
EU CONTRIBUTION: 2, 99M€
TOPIC: HORIZON-CL4-2022-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
Coordinator: Francis Balestra
ICOS has received funding (2023 – 2025) from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under GA No 101092562.