The EU‘s research partnership on semiconductors, the Chips Joint Undertaking (JU), is launching a joint call with South Korea as part of three new calls with a total budget of EUR 216 million. The joint project concerns heterogeneous integration and neuromorphic computing technologies for future semiconductor components and systems and will last for 3 years.
The call for early-stage, pre-commercial research projects is open to universities, research and technology organizations, and private companies. The EU has allocated €6M to the call, and is expected to dedicate €1.5M to each successful project. Meanwhile, the National Research Foundation of Korea is also preparing a call with an equal amount.
The joint research consortium will be composed of EU Horizon Europe consortium and Korean consortium, and the number of research groups participating in the EU and KR consortia should be approximately equal.
“We are very happy to see the first joint call launched by Chips JU and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) on semiconductor research and innovation project,” said the Korea-EU Research Centre(KERC) in a statement. This is one of the outcomes of the Korea-EU Digital Partnership, which was signed in November 2022 and launched in June 2023 with the first Digital Partnership Council organized in Seoul, to strengthen cooperation and economic resilience in the digital sector.
“Another outcome on semiconductor will be the 1st ROK-EU Semiconductor Researchers Forum that will be held in Brussels on 25~26 March. It will be hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and European Commission. For that, the National Research Foundation of Korea has recently recruited 20 researchers including 5 young scientists. Also, the next Digital Partnership Council, an annual meeting at ministerial level, is expected to be held around that time in Brussels.
“The KERC hope that through these initiatives, researchers of Korea and Europe improve their understanding of each other, build networks for the future cooperation in Horizon projects, as Korea‘s association to Horizon Europe is now under formal negotiation and is expected to be concluded this year.
“In Korea, there is still a lack of awareness of the European research and innovation landscape, and in order to promote joint research between Korea and the EU through Horizon Europe in the future, a research network must first be established. This forum and joint call can be a very good opportunity for researchers from both sides to have a mutual exchange and build network.
We hope to see more concrete outcomes in other areas covered by ROK-EU Digital Partnership as well.”
