£35 Million Authorized For British Semiconductor Scientists And Businesses On International Chip Research
Science & Tech
The move provides the UK semiconductor sector enhanced access to a €1.3 billion pot of funds set aside from Horizon Europe to support research in semiconductor technologies up to 2027.
Access to the one of the Chips Joint Undertaking’s funds is being backed by an initial £5 million this year from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and delivered by Innovate UK. An additional £30 million is due to support UK participation in further research between 2025 and 2027.
By joining the fund and contributing in the same way as all other countries who take part, the UK sector has enhanced access to bid for funding support from the €1.3 billion pot, funded by Horizon Europe.
This follows the UK joining Horizon Europe through a bespoke new agreement with the EU last year. The program is giving UK companies and research institutions unrivalled opportunities to lead global work to develop new technologies and research projects, in areas from health to AI.
Tens of thousands of UK companies are now eligible for Horizon Europe grants, which are worth £450,000 to a business on average. UK firms already benefitting from Horizon funding include Nova Innovation, whose consortium won over £17 million to develop tidal energy in Orkney, and South Yorkshire tech firm The Floow who are part of a project awarded just under £3 million, looking into road safety.
This year, the Chips Joint Undertaking fund is well aligned to UK research expertise. In 2024, it includes two focused calls for funding bids on semiconductors for cars and other vehicles as well as RISC-V, an open-source architecture that aims to accelerate semiconductor innovation by lowering the cost of chip design. It also provides more open opportunities for scientists and firms to bid for research support.
The UK has joined the initiative as a “Participating State”, allowing the country to collaborate more closely with European partners on semiconductor innovation. As a Participating State, the UK will have a role in setting research priorities and funding decisions as the fund evolves in the years ahead.
This includes the opportunity for the UK to be a part of a new funding opportunity with the Republic of Korea to research ways to combine semiconductor chips to improve performance through advanced packaging – which the UK-Republic of Korea Semiconductor Framework, signed in November last year.
British research has elsewhere led global efforts to push semiconductor technology forward in fields like “silicon photonics”, which creates faster chips by using light instead of electricity, and compound semiconductors, which enable improved performance over silicon in key applications such as power transmission and radiofrequency communications.