THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM ON NANOELECTRONICS

Nanoelectronics now offers the European electronics sector the opportunity of becoming an even more significant generator of high skilled jobs. However, global competition is fierce with widespread state support in both the USA and Asia Pacific.

Each new generation of technology in the electronics sector requires a steep increase in the level of investments for research and for new design and production facilities. Maintaining Europe’s current leadership requires leading-edge technologies and intellectual property in the EU. This can only be guaranteed by retaining and fostering a high-value domestic manufacturing capability.

Following a series of industry workshops, a high level group of executives from the European Commission, European industry and research institutes presented a vision document highlighting the importance of advanced research and high value manufacturing capabilities in Europe. This report led to the establishment of the European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC), the European Technology Platform for nanoelectronics, bringing together the leading European players to develop and implement a coherent strategy for Europe in this domain.