European Chips Act / Chips Joint Undertaking 2026 — Funding, Eligibility & How to Apply

Next Deadline16 September 2026

56Days Left

78% elapsed22% remaining

Funding available

€10MCo-funded partnership: minority EU/Chips JU contribution (~20% large-enterprise IA to ~35% non-profit) plus national co-funding on top

Success rateNot officially published; competitive (estimated single digits to ~20% depending on call)

TRL band3–8

To decision13–15 mo

2026 budget€300M

On this page · 18 sections→

01Overview
02Is this for you?
03Pilot lines & competence centres
04Success rates
05Eligibility
06Readiness (TRL)
07Funding detail
08How to apply
09Evaluation criteria
10Documents needed
11Budget breakdown
12Deadlines
13After you're funded
14Practical notes
15Who's been funded
16Key features
17Official links
18FAQ

The programme

Overview

The Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) is the EU's funding engine for semiconductors — the brains inside everything from cars to data centres to AI accelerators. It runs the "Chips for Europe Initiative," the technology arm of the European Chips Act, which channels up to €3.3 billion of EU money (€1.65 billion from Horizon Europe plus €1.65 billion from the Digital Europe Programme) into the research, pilot lines, design tools and skills Europe needs to stop importing nearly all its advanced chips. Counting matching national contributions and private investment, the Chips JU expects to mobilise close to €11 billion by 2030. Unlike the EIC, this is consortium-based, collaborative R&D: you apply with partners across several countries, not as a lone startup. The funding model matters: the Chips JU is a co-funded partnership, not a standard Horizon grant, so the EU/Chips JU slice is a minority co-funding contribution — roughly 20% of eligible costs for a large enterprise in an Innovation Action up to around 35% for a non-profit — and your own government's national co-funding makes up the rest of a viable total. Most calls fund Research and Innovation Actions (RIA, earlier-stage research at TRL 3-4) or Innovation Actions (IA, closer-to-market work at TRL 5-8). TRL means Technology Readiness Level, a 1-9 scale where 1 is a lab idea and 9 is a product in the field.

2026 BudgetSixteen calls worth over €300M launched 7 July 2026: Quantum RIAs (2 calls, 17 Sep), Resilience IAs for Power Electronics/Photonics/Health (3 calls, 16–17 Sep), ECS GLOBAL IA/RIA full proposals (2 calls, 17 Sep), Skills Hubs and Pilot Federation (24 Sep), AI Compute, 6G, and further calls also open

Average Grant

The numbers are sobering, even if the Chips JU does not publish a headline success rate the way the EIC does.

Fit

Is this for you?

This is built for organisations doing serious semiconductor R&D as part of a cross-border team: chipmakers and fabless designers, semiconductor-equipment and materials vendors, photonics and quantum hardware companies, research and technology organisations (RTOs like imec, CEA-Leti, Fraunhofer), and universities. If you have a real technical contribution to make to Europe's chip stack — advanced packaging, power electronics, photonic integration, chip-design tooling, quantum components or training the workforce — and partners in several countries to build it with, this is for you. If you are a lone founder looking for non-dilutive cash to scale a single product, look elsewhere: the EIC Accelerator (grant plus equity for one company) or the European Innovation Council Transition scheme fit that far better. Chips JU money is shared across a consortium and tied to a collaborative work plan, not handed to one team.

A good fit if

Consortium working on electronic components & systems — chips, photonics, smart systems, embedded software
Mixed line-up: large enterprises + SMEs + research organisations (typical projects run 20–50 partners)
Entity of any size based in one of the 31 Chips JU Participating States (EU members plus Iceland, Israel, Norway, Türkiye)
Lower-TRL research → RIA call; higher-TRL industrial innovation → IA call (your TRL must match the call's)
Comfortable co-investing — the grant covers roughly half your costs, not all of them

Probably not if

Lone startup wanting non-dilutive cash for its own product → EIC Accelerator
Single-country project with no transnational consortium → your national chips/R&D scheme
Building an actual fab or first-of-a-kind facility → Chips Act Pillar 2 (state-aid route via your government), not JU calls
Need 70–100% cost coverage → mainstream Horizon Europe RIA/IA; Chips JU pays 20–35% EU plus a national top-up

The hidden gate: your country must not only be a Participating State — it must have national budget left for that year's call, and you must pass its separate national eligibility rules. Phone your National Funding Authority before writing a word.

Focus areas

Pilot lines & competence centres

Pilot lines (the shared fabs)

Five open-access pilot lines let companies prototype and validate advanced chips without building their own fab. NanoIC at imec (Leuven) pushes sub-2nm logic and is the largest at a combined €2.5bn (€700m EU, €700m national, the rest from ASML and industry partners). APECS, coordinated by Fraunhofer in Germany, handles advanced packaging and chiplets; FAMES (CEA-Leti, France) covers FD-SOI and emerging memory.

Open-access prototyping and small-volume manufacturing on cutting-edge process technology

PIXEurope photonics pilot line

A dedicated pilot line for advanced photonic integrated circuits, coordinated by ICFO in Barcelona with partners across eleven European countries. It offers cutting-edge platforms to move integrated-photonics processes from lab to industrial adoption.

Photonic chip prototyping and process transfer to industry

Wide-Band-Gap (WBG) pilot line

Focused on wide-band-gap semiconductor materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride, used in power electronics and radio-frequency applications.

Research and prototyping on SiC and GaN power and RF devices

EU Chips Design Platform

A pan-European, cloud-based design platform coordinated by imec that gives SMEs, start-ups and fabless firms access to commercial EDA tools, IP libraries and a route to the pilot lines. Onboarding first companies 2026–2028.

Subsidised EDA-tool access, IP libraries and route-to-chip for fabless designers

Competence centres network

A network of national Chips Competence Centres established across all 27 EU member states (plus Norway) to give local industry, SMEs and researchers a single front door to skills, design support and pilot-line access.

Local training, expertise and signposting to Chips JU infrastructure

ECS and Global research-and-innovation calls

Annual collaborative calls in Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) fund consortia from low to high technology-readiness via Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA). A 'Global' strand opens topics to international cooperation. EU money is matched by participating-state co-funding, so national eligibility rules apply.

Multi-partner R&D consortia in chips and electronic systems, co-funded by member states

The odds

Success rates — the honest picture

The numbers are sobering, even if the Chips JU does not publish a headline success rate the way the EIC does. Individual 2026 calls are funded at €10-50 million each, and a single large pilot-line or design topic can absorb most of one call's budget — so only a handful of consortia win per topic, and competition concentrates on the big-name RTOs and tier-one chip firms. Realistically, selection rates sit in the single digits to ~20% depending on the call, and the bar is technical excellence judged by expert evaluators, not polish. The bigger trap is the co-funding model: this is NOT a near-full EU grant. The EU/Chips JU contribution is a minority slice — roughly 20% of costs for a large enterprise in an Innovation Action, up to around 35% for a non-profit — so the national co-funding from your own government is essential, not a bonus. Winning the Chips JU evaluation is necessary but not sufficient: you must ALSO secure that national co-funding, and national budgets are capped per country and can run out, so a technically excellent proposal can still go unfunded if your member state has no money left. Most rejections are not bad science; they are consortia that were too thin, mis-pitched the TRL, or assembled partners without genuine complementarity. If you are not already plugged into the European chip ecosystem (AENEAS, Inside, EPoSS industry associations), the realistic move is to join an existing consortium rather than lead your first one.

End-to-end success rateNot officially published; competitive (estimated single digits to ~20% depending on call)

Roughly 1 in 5 applications gets funded. A sharp, evidence-backed proposal is what separates the funded from the rejected.

ECS Calls 2024 — submitted vs selected (Chips JU annual report)

Call / topic	Submitted	Selected	Success rate
Global IA (2024-1, bottom-up)	13	5	38%
IA focus topics (RISC-V, SDV)	2	2	100%
Global RIA (2024-2, bottom-up)	22	3	14%
RIA focus topic (greener manufacturing)	1	1	100%
EU–Korea joint RIA (2024-3)	15	4	27%
Total ECS calls 2024	53	15	28%

The JU's own annual report concedes the success rate 'dropped significantly in 2024', blaming smaller budgets for the open bottom-up topics — the focus topics drew one or two bids each and sailed through. Two-stage calls gate hard: only proposals passing the Project Outline may submit a Full Project Proposal, and grant signature comes roughly 8 months after the final deadline.

Who qualifies

Eligibility

1Open to legal entities — companies (any size), research and technology organisations, universities and public bodies — established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country.
2Most calls require a consortium of partners from several different participating countries; this is collaborative cross-border R&D rather than single-applicant funding.
3Because the Chips JU is a co-funded partnership, the EU/Chips JU grant covers only a minority slice (~20-35% of costs); each partner must also satisfy its own national authority's eligibility rules and draw on that country's allocated national co-funding budget to reach a viable total.
4Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) fund earlier-stage research at TRL 3-4; Innovation Actions (IA) fund closer-to-market development at TRL 5-8.
5Proposals must address a specific open call topic — advanced packaging, power electronics, photonics, health, quantum chips, chip design, pilot lines, competence centres or skills.
6All proposals are submitted via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal under the relevant HORIZON-JU-CHIPS (Horizon Europe) or DIGITAL-JU-CHIPS (Digital Europe) call identifier.

The fine print

Two rulebooks, one proposal — and the national one can sink you

Most 2026 ECS (Electronic Components and Systems) calls are co-funded with National Funding Authorities (NFAs): the Chips JU pays the EU share, your own Participating State pays the national share under its own rules. The work programme carries a country-by-country annex of national eligibility criteria, and several states demand a parallel national application — Austria, for instance, requires Austrian partners to file electronically via the FFG eCall system before the deadline. Winning the European evaluation does not guarantee national money; partners ruled ineligible by their NFA can hole an otherwise funded consortium below the waterline.

Country eligibility is wider than Horizon Europe — on paper

Participation in the 2026 global calls is limited to legal entities established in EU member states (including overseas countries and territories), the EEA (European Economic Area: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), Horizon Europe associated countries, and OECD and Mercosur countries. UK and Swiss entities clear the EU-level test (both are OECD members, and the UK is Horizon-associated). The catch is the money: national co-funding flows only through the NFAs of Chips JU Participating States, so check whether your national authority actually funds this call before budgeting around it.

The 30% cap is an exclusion ground, not a scoring nudge

In the bottom-up global IA (Innovation Action) and RIA (Research and Innovation Action) calls, no single partner may take more than 30% of the total EU funding requested. The work programme is blunt: proposals that do not comply "will be excluded" — they never reach the evaluators. A dominant coordinator who hoovers up the budget disqualifies everyone.

Foreign-control screening under Article 22(5)

An entity established in an eligible country but directly or indirectly controlled from a non-eligible country (or by a non-eligible-country entity) may not participate unless it provides guarantees approved by its member state or associated country of establishment, demonstrating that the project's results, IP (intellectual property) and sensitive information stay out of non-eligible hands. Guarantees are submitted after proposal selection — so a foreign-owned subsidiary can pass evaluation and still fall at grant preparation. Entities assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile-network equipment (or anything they fully or partially own or control) cannot submit guarantees at all.

Financial capacity is checked for every beneficiary, not just the coordinator

All beneficiaries face a financial-capacity check during grant preparation — balance sheet, profit-and-loss account, audited accounts for the last closed financial year — except public bodies and participants requesting no more than €60,000. A weak balance sheet (the analysis also weighs dependency on EU funding and prior-year deficits) can trigger pre-financing in instalments, bank guarantees, joint-and-several liability, zero pre-financing, forced replacement of the partner, or rejection of the entire proposal. Young, loss-making startups should budget for this conversation.

Entity-type fine print

Natural persons are ineligible (sole traders without separate legal personality excepted). International organisations are out unless they qualify as being "of European interest". EU bodies cannot join the consortium (the Commission's Joint Research Centre excepted). Entities under EU restrictive measures are barred in any capacity — including as subcontractors — as are Hungarian public-interest trusts under the EU's rule-of-law conditionality decision. Every beneficiary and affiliated entity must be registered and validated in the Participant Register before submission.

Technology readiness

Where you need to be

Your project should sit at TRL 3–8 when you apply. The eligible band is highlighted below.

1
Basic principles observedThe underlying science is written up; no application yet.
2
Technology concept formulatedA practical use for the idea is proposed on paper.
3
Experimental proof of conceptLab experiments show the core idea can work.
4
Technology validated in labComponents work together in a controlled lab setup.
5
Technology validated in relevant environmentThe setup is tested in conditions closer to the real world.
6
Technology demonstrated in relevant environmentA full prototype is demonstrated in a realistic setting.
7
System prototype demonstration in operational environmentA pre-production prototype runs in its real operating environment.
8
System complete and qualifiedThe technology is finished and proven through test and qualification.
9
Actual system proven in operational environmentFully commercial, operating at scale in the field.

The money

The money — tripartite co-funding

Combined envelope≈€11bnEU + national + private investment, 2023–2027, across research calls and Chips Act infrastructure

EU rate (ECS calls)20–35%IA: 20% large / 30% SME / 35% other · RIA: 25% / 35% / 35% of eligible costs

National top-up+26–31%average national rate on 2024 selected projects — total public coverage ≈52–62%

2026 ECS call budget~€180MEU side, spread across 10 ECS calls incl. €50M global RIA and €40M global IA

Good to know

Three wallets, two applications.

Chips JU is a tripartite partnership: the EU (through the Joint Undertaking), the Participating States, and the participants themselves. That means you apply twice — once on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, once to your national funding authority (in Austria via the FFG eCall, in Denmark via e-grant) — and if you win, you sign two separate grant agreements. The proposal even carries a special 'National Budgets Table' and password-protected national annexes per country.

The national-budget trap.

Each country publishes its own pot per topic — Austria's 2025 allocation was €3.0M for the global IA (Innovation Action) topic and €3.6M for the global RIA (Research and Innovation Action) — plus its own rules (Austria demands a 1.5:1 person-month ratio of companies to research organisations; other states require an SME or an academic partner in the consortium). A top EU evaluation score does not conjure national money: if your country's pot is empty or you fail national eligibility, you sit in the project under-funded. In some countries costs only become eligible from the day the national contract is signed.

Rates depend on size, not merit.

On the EU side, a large enterprise gets 20% of costs in an IA and 25% in a RIA; an SME gets 30% and 35%; research organisations and other non-profits get 35%. The national grant adds on average another 26–31%, leaving roughly 40–48% of project costs as your own investment. One exception proved the rule: the 2024 EU–Korea joint call was 100% EU-funded with no national leg.

The portal cannot do the maths.

The Funding & Tenders Portal does not implement Chips JU's bespoke funding rates for large enterprises — applicants must compute their requested EU contribution outside the system and type the figure in manually. After signature, all payments (prefinancing, interim, balance) flow to the coordinator, who redistributes under the consortium agreement.

The process

How to apply — step by step

1
Pick the right call route and build a consortium6-10 weeks to assemble consortium
The Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) runs two distinct funding routes you must choose between before writing anything. The 'Global' Research and Innovation Action (RIA) and Innovation Action (IA) calls (e.g. HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-1-RIA) are funded entirely by the Chips JU. The bi-partite 'ECS' (Electronic Components and Systems) calls layer a Chips JU grant on top of national co-funding from each partner's Participating State (e.g. FFG in Austria, Vinnova in Sweden). Both demand a transnational consortium — typically academia plus industry, with strong business participation for market-oriented IA projects. Use the ECS Brokerage Event and partner-search tools to assemble it.
2
Submit the first-stage short proposal (Project Outline)4-6 weeks to draftpass rate stage-2 cut set to admit ~2-3x available budget
Chips JU calls are two-stage. At stage one you submit a short proposal — a Project Outline (PO) for ECS calls, or the first-stage Part B on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for Global calls — giving key data, the consortium, and the technical concept against the chosen Multiannual Work Programme challenge/topic. For 2026 the first-stage deadline was 6 May 2026, 17:00 Brussels time. Chips JU-appointed independent experts score it against Excellence and Impact only (Implementation is not yet assessed). Each criterion is scored 0-5 with half-marks; threshold is 3/5.
3
Submit the second-stage Full Project Proposal8-12 weeks to draft
Only consortia that pass the first stage are invited to submit the Full Project Proposal (FPP) — the complete technical description, detailed work packages, costs, and per-partner budgets, submitted via the Funding & Tenders Portal (and the national e-Call for ECS bi-partite calls). The 2026 second-stage submission window opened on 7 July 2026, with a deadline of 17 September 2026. Independent experts now score all three criteria — Excellence, Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation — each 0-5 (threshold 3/5), with consensus reports and a ranked list.
4
National co-funding decision (ECS bi-partite calls only)Decision ~early 2027 for 2026 calls
For ECS calls, ranking by Chips JU experts is necessary but not sufficient: each national funding authority of every Participating State makes its own formal co-financing decision for its own beneficiaries, against national rules and budgets. The Chips JU collects these decisions and relays the consolidated result to consortium coordinators. For the 2026 calls this was expected in early 2027. Global RIA/IA calls skip this step — funding comes wholly from the Chips JU.
5
Grant agreement preparation and signatureSeveral months after evaluation
Successful proposals enter Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) on the Funding & Tenders Portal: legal and financial validation of each beneficiary, finalised budgets, and the description of action. The Chips JU signs the EU grant; for bi-partite ECS projects national authorities additionally contract their own beneficiaries under national agreements. Standard Horizon Europe time-to-grant targets apply.

Evaluation

What evaluators look for

Excellence

Threshold ≥3/5 (scored at both stages)

Scientific and technological soundness and ambition of the concept, the credibility of the proposed approach against the targeted Work Programme challenge/topic, and the appropriateness of the TRL focus (centre of gravity TRL 3-4 for RIA, higher TRL 5-8 for market-oriented IA). Scored 0-5 with half-marks.

Clarity and pertinence of objectives vs the chosen Work Programme challenge
Soundness and credibility of the methodology and concept
Ambition and technological maturity (TRL) relative to the state of the art

Impact

Threshold ≥3/5 (scored at both stages)

Contribution to European semiconductor sovereignty, supply-chain resilience and industrial competitiveness; for IA projects a credible deployment/exploitation plan ensuring economic value creation in Europe and a clear roadmap beyond the project. Scored 0-5 with half-marks.

Expected industrial, economic and societal impacts
Credibility of exploitation/deployment and a roadmap beyond the project horizon
Measures to maximise impact (dissemination, IP, market uptake)

Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation

Threshold ≥3/5 (second stage / Full Project Proposal only)

Coherence of the work plan, allocation of resources and budget, and the quality and complementarity of the consortium (transnational, academia plus industry; significant business participation for IA). Assessed only at the second stage once the full proposal and detailed costs are submitted. Scored 0-5 with half-marks.

Quality and effectiveness of the work plan and work packages
Appropriateness of resource and budget allocation
Capacity, complementarity and balance of the consortium

Paperwork

Documents you'll need

Chips JU — Open and Upcoming CallsWeb

The official hub listing open and planned calls, deadlines, and links into each call's detail page and submission portal — start here to find your topic. (The former /callsinfo/ URL now returns 404; the current page is /Open-and-Upcoming-Calls.)

View document

Multiannual Work Programme 2023-2027 (and yearly appendices)Web + PDF annexes

The strategic and legal basis for all calls — defines the topics, challenges, budgets and TRL focus you must address in your proposal; yearly appendices list the specific activities launched each year.

View document

Global RIA call detail — HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-1-RIAWeb

Call page giving budget (€50M), opening (3 Feb 2026), first-stage deadline (6 May 2026) and second-stage deadline (17 Sep 2026, now open from 7 Jul 2026), grant range and submission portal link.

View document

EU Funding & Tenders Portal — Chips JU RIA two-stage topicWeb

The Commission portal where Global-call proposals are submitted; hosts the call documents, proposal templates (Part A/B), and submission system for both stages.

View document

Guide for Applicants — Chips JU Non-Initiative (ECS) CallsWeb (PDF linked per call)

Step-by-step guidance for the bi-partite ECS route: the Project Outline / Full Project Proposal two-stage flow, national co-funding mechanics, eligibility and templates (note: confirm the current-year edition on the call page at /Open-and-Upcoming-Calls).

View document

Chips JU Q&A / FAQWeb

Clarifies eligibility (EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway and Israel; UK excluded), co-financing rules and consortium composition questions that recur in calls.

View document

Budget split

Typical Budget Breakdown

Horizon Europe contribution to Chips for Europe Initiative50%

Digital Europe Programme contribution to Chips for Europe Initiative50%

Calendar

2026 Deadlines

Next Cut-off16 September 2026

Cut-off 217 September 2026

Cut-off 324 September 2026

From submission to money

3 Feb 2026
3 Feb 20262026 ECS calls open
Two-stage global IA (40m EUR) and RIA (50m EUR) calls plus the fast-track software-defined-vehicle IA open on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.
7 May 2026
7 May 2026Project Outline deadline (stage 1)
PO submissions for the two-stage global calls closed at 17:00 Brussels time; outlines are evaluated and successful consortia prepare full proposals.
7 Jul 2026
7 Jul 2026One-stage calls open
Resilience IA calls (power electronics, photonics, health — 20m EUR each), the 6G RIA, and the 5m EUR India/Singapore/Taiwan international RIA open for full proposals. The supply-chain and SDV ecosystem CSAs also open.
17 Sep 2026
17 Sep 2026One-stage Full Proposal deadline
Resilience IA (Focus Topics 1-3), 6G and international calls close at 17:00 Brussels time. The SDV ecosystem CSA and supply-chain CSAs close on the same date.
17 Sep 2026
17 Sep 2026Full Proposal deadline, two-stage global calls
Final submission for the global two-stage IA/RIA calls (HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-1-IA/RIA); independent experts evaluate against excellence, implementation and impact.
T+5 months (~Feb 2027)
T+5 months (~Feb 2027)Evaluation results letters
Horizon Europe maximum time-to-inform standard: applicants learn the outcome within five months of the final deadline.
T+8 months (~May 2027)
T+8 months (~May 2027)Grant agreement signature
Horizon Europe time-to-grant ceiling; grant preparation, foreign-control guarantees where required, and national funding contracts with each NFA run in parallel.
GA + ~30 days
GA + ~30 daysEU pre-financing paid
The Chips JU pays the EU pre-financing shortly after the grant agreement enters into force; the national share arrives separately from your NFA on its own national schedule.

After the grant

After you're funded

Two grant agreements, not one

Winners sign the Chips JU Model Grant Agreement — published with the call documents and explicitly non-negotiable — plus separate national grants or contracts with each partner's funding authority. The JU and the national agencies try to synchronise the two processes during grant preparation, but the burden of running both in parallel sits with the consortium.

Money arrives via the coordinator

Payments follow Horizon Europe rules: prefinancing, interim payments and the final balance are all transferred to the project coordinator, who redistributes to beneficiaries under the consortium agreement — which must be concluded before the EU grant is signed. National money arrives on each country's own schedule and conditions.

Roughly 13 months from outline to signature

Evaluation results come within 5 months of the deadline (Horizon standard); the indicative grant signature is 8 months after the Full Project Proposal deadline. For a two-stage call opening in February with a May outline and September full proposal, real work funded by the EU grant typically starts well into the following year.

Horizon obligations apply in full

The no-profit rule is checked at project end, double funding from the EU budget is strictly prohibited, and beneficiary names, addresses and maximum awarded amounts are published annually on the Europa website. Expect periodic reporting and deliverables to a Chips JU project officer, with national reporting on top.

SME status gets re-checked

A self-declared SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) rating is enough to submit, but at grant preparation the organisation's LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative) must complete the formal SME self-assessment. Fail it — or skip it — and your funding rate drops to the large-enterprise level.

On the ground

Practical notes

The national funding check is the make-or-break step nobody warns you about

Chips JU ECS calls are co-funded: the JU pays part and your own country's National Funding Authority pays the rest, so being scored well by Brussels is not enough — you must also be eligible under your national rules, which differ by country and can require an SME or a specific industry/academic mix in the consortium. Contact your National Funding Authority (listed in the Annual Work Programme) the moment a call opens, because national funding can be capped or tied to the EU amount, and a partner deemed nationally ineligible can sink an otherwise-fundable proposal.

Consortia form at the ECS Brokerage Event and its collaboration tool, not on the portal

The ECS R&I calls are built by the community around AENEAS, EPoSS and Inside (the three industry associations that also write the ECS-SRIA roadmap the calls are based on). Their annual ECS Brokerage Event (4-5 Feb 2026, The EGG, Brussels; roughly €300 members / €400-500 non-members) is where project ideas get pitched and consortia assembled — and even if you miss the pitch slots you can upload your idea to the ECS Collaboration Tool to find partners ahead of the call.

Two-stage calls let you test an idea cheaply before committing

The Global IA and Global RIA calls run in two phases: a short Project Outline first (deadline around early-to-mid May 2026), then the Full Project Proposal only if you pass (around 17 September 2026). Use the outline stage as a low-cost gate — it filters out weak ideas before you spend weeks on the full submission, and gives you a summer to finalise the consortium and national funding paperwork.

Your free help: NCPs for the application, Competence Centres for the substance

Each country's National Contact Point for the Chips JU (e.g. NCP Flanders) gives free guidance on call rules, eligibility and proposal navigation — use them alongside your National Funding Authority. Separately, the network of Chips Competence Centres set up under the Chips Act offers free access to technical expertise, pilot lines, design platforms, training and even investor-finding support, which can strengthen the technical credibility of a proposal.

Track record

Who's been funded

NanoIC€2.5bn total (€700m EU)

NanoIC pilot line (sub-2nm logic, imec)

Europe's largest Chips Act pilot line, at imec in Leuven, pushing sub-2nm logic with ASML and partners and giving companies open access to leading-edge nodes.

BelgiumProject

APECS-PL€96,211,548 EU contribution

Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems Pilot Line

A Fraunhofer-coordinated pilot line for advanced packaging and chiplet integration, building Europe's capacity in heterogeneous integration.

GermanyProject

PIXEurope€380m total (EU plus national)

European pilot line for advanced photonic integrated circuits

An ICFO-led photonics pilot line spanning eleven countries that moves integrated-photonics processes from lab to industrial adoption.

SpainProject

MOSAIC€16,013,726 EU contribution

A Mosaic of Essential Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) for Our Automated Digital Future in Industry and Mobility

An Infineon-coordinated RIA developing next-generation electronic components for automated systems across automotive, aerospace and industrial use.

GermanyProject

E2PACKMAN€22,903,223 EU contribution

European Consortium for Accelerating Innovations in Electronic Packaging Manufacturing

Sixty partners across thirteen countries, led by Infineon, advancing materials, processes and equipment for electronics packaging.

GermanyProject

At a glance

Key Features

Up to €3.3B EU budget (€1.65B Horizon Europe + €1.65B Digital Europe)

Calls of €10-50M each across chip design, photonics, quantum, power electronics and skills

Co-funded model: the EU/Chips JU grant is a minority slice (~20-35% of costs); national co-funding from your own government makes up the rest

Funds pilot lines, a design platform, and 30 competence centres across 28 countries

RIA at TRL 3-4 and IA at TRL 5-8

Consortium-based — apply with partners across multiple countries

Sources

Official links & resources

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The European Chips Act is the wider EU regulation and strategy. The Chips JU runs its funding arm — the Chips for Europe Initiative — which pays for R&D, pilot lines, a chip design platform, competence centres and skills, with up to €3.3B of EU money (€1.65B Horizon Europe + €1.65B Digital Europe).

Rarely. Most Chips JU calls require a consortium of partners from several participating countries. If you want non-dilutive funding for one company, the EIC Accelerator is the better route.

The Chips JU is a co-funded partnership, not a standard Horizon grant, so the EU/Chips JU contribution is a minority slice of project costs — roughly 20% for a large enterprise in an Innovation Action up to around 35% for a non-profit. On top of that EU grant you receive national co-funding from your own government, and the combined rate varies by country and partner type.

Funded projects receive both a Chips JU (EU) grant and national co-funding from their own government. Because the EU slice is only about 20-35% of costs, the national portion is essential to reach a viable total — not a top-up bonus. You must win the Chips JU evaluation AND secure national co-funding, and national budgets are capped per country and can run out, so a strong proposal can still go unfunded.

Pilot lines (e.g. PIXEurope for photonics, the Wide Band Gap line, FAMES) are shared advanced-manufacturing facilities where companies prototype chips they could not build alone. Competence centres — 30 of them across 28 countries — give SMEs and researchers local access to chip-design expertise and tools.

Sixteen calls opened 7 July 2026 with three main cut-off waves: 16 September (ECS Resilience IAs for Power Electronics, Photonics and Health, €20M each — some NCPs cite 17 Sep, verify on the portal); 17 September (Quantum Chips Design RIA €30M, Quantum Enabling Technologies RIA €20M, ECS GLOBAL IA €40M and RIA €50M full proposals); and 24 September (Skills Hubs of Excellence €20M and Pilot Federation €10M). Confirm all dates on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

All Chips JU proposals are submitted via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal under the relevant HORIZON-JU-CHIPS or DIGITAL-JU-CHIPS call identifier. Two-stage calls require a short outline first, then a full proposal if invited.