📋 Tender Overview
The European Commission kick-starts today two new Industrial Alliances the Alliance for Processors and Semiconductor technologies and the European Alliance for Industrial Data Edge and Cloud.The two new alliances will advance the next generation of microchips and industrial cloudedge computing technologies and provide the EU with the capabilities needed to strengthen its critical digital infrastructures products and services. The alliances will bring together businesses Member State representatives academia users as well as research and technology organisations.Margrethe Vestager Executive Vice-President for a Europe fit for the Digital Age said Cloud and edge technologies present a tremendous economic potential for citizens businesses and public administrations for example in terms of increased competitiveness and meeting industry-specific needs. Microchips are at the heart of every device we use nowadays. From our mobile phones to our passports these small components bring a wealth of opportunities for technological advancements. Supporting innovation in these critical sectors is therefore crucial and can help Europe leap ahead together with like-minded partners.Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said Europe has all it takes to lead the technological race. The two alliances will devise ambitious technological roadmaps to develop and deploy in Europe the next generation of data processing technologies from cloud to edge and cutting-edge semiconductors. The alliance on cloud and edge aims at developing energy-efficient and highly secured European industrial clouds which are not subject to control or access by third country authorities. The alliance on semiconductors will rebalance global semiconductor supply chains by ensuring that we have the capacity to design and produce in Europe the most advanced chips towards 2nm and below.Industrial Alliance for Processors and Semiconductor technologiesMicrochips including processors are key technologies that power all electronic devices and machines we use today. Chips underpin a large variety of economic activities and determine their energy efficiency and security levels. Capabilities in the development of processors and chips are crucial to the future of todays most advanced economies. The Industrial Alliance on processors and semiconductor technologies will be a key instrument to further industrial progress in the EU in this area.It will identify and address current bottlenecks needs and dependencies across the industry. It will define technological roadmaps ensuring that Europe has the capacity to design and produce the most advanced chips while reducing its overall strategic dependencies by increasing its share of the global production of semiconductors to 20 by 2030.To this aim the Alliance aims to establish the design and manufacturing capacity required to produce the next generation of trusted processors and electronic components. This will mean moving Europe towards a production capacity of 16 nanometre nm to 10nm nodes to support Europes current needs as well as below 5 to 2 nm and beyond to anticipate future technology needs. The most advanced types of semiconductors are more performant and have the potential to cut massively the energy used by everything from phones to data centres.European Alliance for Industrial Data Edge and CloudAs highlighted in the European Strategy for Data the volume of data generated is greatly increasing and a significant proportion of data is expected to be processed at the edge 80 by 2025 from only 20 today closer to the users and where data are generated. This shift represents a major opportunity for the EU to strengthen its own cloud and edge capacities and hence its technological sovereignty. It will require the development and deployment of fundamentally new data processing technologies encompassing the edge moving away from fully centralised data processing infrastructure models.The European Alliance for Industrial Data Edge and Cloud will foster the emergence of disruptive cloud and edge technologies that are highly secure energy and resource-efficient and fully interoperable fostering trust for cloud users across all sectors. The Alliance will serve the specific needs of EU citizens businesses and the public sector including for military and security purposes to process highly sensitive data while boosting the competitiveness of EU industry on cloud and edge technologies.Throughout its lifespan the work of the Alliance will respect the following key principles and normsHighest standards in terms of interoperability and portabilityreversibility openness and transparencyHighest standards in terms of data protection cybersecurity and data sovereigntyState of the art in terms of energy efficiency and sustainabilityCompliance with European cloud best practices including through adherence to relevant standards codes of conduct and certification schemes.Participation in the AlliancesThese Alliances are open for participation by all public and private entities with a legal representative in the Union and with relevant activities provided they meet the conditions defined in the Terms of Reference.Due to the strategic relevance of the activities in the respective sectors membership of the Alliances is subject to compliance with a number of conditions. Relevant stakeholders must meet eligibility criteria related notably to security including cybersecurity security of supply IP protection data protection and data access and practical utility to the Alliance. They must sign the Declarations and fill in an application form which will be assessed by the European Commission.
