Recruitment Cycle Cohort 2027

Clusters are eligible as far as they are legal entities established in one of the eligible countries (p.31, Eligible participants) and are active in the semiconductor sector, or they provide evidence of their ability and experience in delivering communication events (p.17, Targeted stakeholders).

As specified in the call text (p. 9), all proposals must commit to increase the visibility and the attractiveness of semiconductors related studies and jobs, and further apply for one of the two actions: I) Higher Education Network or II) Vocational Training Network. Addressing both type of actions requires the submission of two separate proposals.

The organization is eligible as far as it is a legal entity established in one of the eligible countries (p.31, Eligible participants) and is active in the semiconductor sector and/or provide evidence of its ability and experience in delivering communication events (p.17, Targeted stakeholders).

Beneficiaries are expected to fulfil prescribed eligibility criteria and eligible participants' requirements (p. 31). Please note that one of the important requirements for eligible applicants, is to be legal entities registered in eligible countries for this topic, i.e.: − EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) − non-EU countries: − listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (associated countries ) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature. Accordingly, an SME registered in Ireland as a legal entity is eligible as an applicant.

Yes, two partners can be established in the same country, provided that the consortium has applicants from at least 5 different eligible countries.

Consortia should include a proper number of higher education institutions or VET providers in order to fulfil the call requirements, notably the "Impact" criterion.

Yes, the consortium can include manufacturing companies given that they comply with Article 6 of the call (p.31).

Beneficiaries are expected to fulfil prescribed eligibility criteria and eligible participants requirements (p. 31). Please note that one of the important requirement for eligible applicants is to be legal entities registered in eligible countries for this topic, i.e.: − EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) − non-EU countries: − listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (associated countries ) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature. It is also recommended to take note of Targeted stakeholders on p.17. As indicated, research and technology organizations, research centers or foundations, and any other institution active in the semiconductors sector can be part of the consortium.

As specified in the call (p.31), the eligible participants are the ones established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: − EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) − non-EU countries: − listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (associated countries ) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.

The DIGITAL-2023-SKILLS-04-SEMICONDUCTORS topic belongs to Simple Grants, with a co-financing rate of 50 percent for all applicants. The co-financing principle means that the part of the costs that is not reimbursed by the grant has to be covered by the participant's own resources or a contribution from third parties. There are no specific rules as to the type of resources to be covered by the participant or the contribution from the third parties and it is not a requirement to identify cash or other specific spending per item or activity.

Digital Europe Programme has its specificities. For detailed information on the eligibility of costs under the Digital Europe Programme please refer to EU Grants AGA — Annotated Grant Agreement (aga_en.pdfPDF), Art 6, p. 36.

As specified in the call text (p.41), the indirect cost flat-rate is 7% of the eligible direct costs.

The format and the content of any form, provided under this Topic for the submission of proposals, cannot be changed. Any change to those standard forms may lead to inadmissibility of an application.

The submission period for the topic is open from 11th of May 2023 until 26th of September 2023 17:00:00 Brussels time.

Industry can contribute to teaching activities in many ways, for example from hosting students for hands-on experiences to providing qualified staff as teachers. The most effective solutions have to be agreed with higher education institutions and/or VET providers.

There is no need to change the PIC to an OID, as they are used in different contexts: OIDs apply to decentralised actions managed by the National Agencies and PICs to centralised actions such as this call and topic. Therefore, for this call, applicants will continue their application with PIC numbers.

The usage and the content of ready-made industry courses must be agreed with higher education institutions and/or VET providers, taking into account their content and how they can be intregrated in the educational programmes delivered by the members of the consortium. As mentioned in the call document, targeted stakeholder section (p. 17) Higher education institutions and VET providers participating to this action, must explain the added value that the designed education and training activities bring to existing education offer, as delivered in the latest years prior to this action.

Consortia, including higher education institutions and VET providers as members, are expected to deliver activities for secondary schools, to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the semiconductors sector among secondary schools' students. Consortia are also expected to improve and update current academic curricula and training courses delivered by their participating members.

With regards to this, the call specifically mentions that for part I on Higher Education Network the following areas of action for the semiconductor sector must be considered:

1.Chips Design – it is the process of designing an integrated circuit, implemented by laying out basic miniaturised elements, such as transistors, and their interconnections, onto a piece of semiconductor substrate, typically silicon, in order to perform specific functions. Chip design is usually carried out using electronic design automation tools.

2.Chips Manufacturing – it is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices and integrated circuit such as computer processors, microcontrollers, and memories, that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step sequence of photolithographic and physico-chemical processing steps to create electronic circuits on a wafer of semiconducting material.

3.Packaging – it is the process used to aggregate and interconnect components, integrated circuits, and multiple devices in a single electronic device. It includes, for example, multi-chip modules, heterogeneous integration, fan-out wafer-level packaging, system-in-package, die stacking, chiplets package, through electrical, mechanical and photonics techniques.

This requirement does not apply for part II on the Vocational Training Network.

Under the topic DIGITAL-2023-SKILLS-04-SEMICONDUCTORS, two grants are expected to be selected. The number of grants may vary depending on the requested funding by successful proposals. There is not a specific number of grants earmarked for each focus area. The selected proposals will be determined by their overall scores during the evaluation process based on the Section 9 award criteria of the call document (pg 37-38).