3rd December 2025 |
Notice
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) invites project proposals under this Call for Expressions of Interest for IPCEI in Advanced Semiconductor Technologies (AST), Artificial Intelligence Services (AI) and Compute Infrastructure Continuum (CIC). This call is intended to identify businesses active in these fields that may wish to put forward projects that could fit within the scope of these upcoming IPCEIs and accordingly be considered for possible State co-funding.
What are IPCEI?
IPCEI AST
IPCEI AI
IPCEI CIC
Role of direct participants, associated partners and indirect participants
Direct participants
Associated partners
Indirect partners
Assessment criteria
Submitting a proposal
Information session
What are IPCEI?
IPCEI are large-scale, EU multi-country projects and are an increasingly important industrial policy tool for delivering breakthrough innovation and infrastructure when the market alone does not deliver. IPCEI are a unique instrument for large-scale industrial collaborations across the European Union, contributing to sustainable growth and increasing EU competitiveness. Where a funding gap is evidenced, a State funding contribution [1] may be granted for certain projects that make an important contribution to the growth, competitiveness and productivity of the European industrial sector and to the strategic objectives of the EU. IPCEI also make an effective contribution to national and European climate and digital goals by building European value chains in key sectors. Member States support domestic companies who undertake projects at national level, with significant collaborations across Member States, which feed into the achievement of the overall IPCEI objectives.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to “Boost participation in Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) to increase competitiveness and productivity for Irish companies and create more jobs.”
DETE has been working with our enterprise agencies - IDA Ireland (IDA) and Enterprise Ireland (EI) - to represent Ireland’s interests on EU joint working groups tasked with designing future IPCEIs in AST, AI and CIC.
IPCEI AST
Megatrends such as artificial intelligence, automation, security and sustainability are driving a fundamental change in society. The European semiconductor industry will play a vital role in this transformation if, and only if, we urgently adopt a collective and ambitious approach to seize these market opportunities.
Although the European semiconductor industry has major strengths in specific technological fields, it has been under pressure for the past 20 years. Semiconductors increasingly are a key domain of global geo-economic and political dominance, reinforcing the need for European technological sovereignty and leadership on global markets.
To face this in-depth transformation, an IPCEI focused on AST will provide the necessary impulse for Europe’s semiconductor industry to capitalise on emerging technological opportunities and to establish new positions of global leadership and market strength.
The IPCEI AST provides an ambitious and collective answer to these challenges by addressing highly disruptive technological developments. We are seeking project proposals in any of the following 7 key technology fields:
- AI chips and accelerators
- Photonic Integrated Circuits
- Chiplets and heterogenous integration/Advanced packaging
- Disruptive sensors
- Power Electronics and Disruptive Energy Saving Solutions
- Secure Communication
- Enabling technologies
Further information to assist applicants
Ireland is one of 15 EU Member States which, in collaboration with the EU Commission as part of the Joint European Forum for IPCEIs (JEF-IPCEI), has developed a Central Narrative to provide applicants with background to this IPCEI proposal. A description of the Technology Fields in scope for this IPCEI has also been agreed. It is strongly recommended that applicants consult these documents.
IPCEI AI
The European Union as a unique digital single market is challenged by rapid digital developments. The European Union faces double challenges: first, it needs to increase the adoption of key digital technologies in its economy to improve its competitiveness and second, and to do so in a way that strengthens its technological sovereignty and the resilience of its infrastructure and societies. The engine of the next industrial revolution will be artificial intelligence, which is a major paradigm shift and the technological foundation for the development and use of digital solutions today and tomorrow. Europe’s industry needs access to the latest software, AI models, high-quality data sets as well as high-end computing resources. European industries need equal access to sufficient computing and data resources for AI to reduce their dependence on non-European solutions and providers. The European industries must have the choice to increase resilience as well as security. This shall be achieved by combining new and existing European technologies through increased interoperability.
Therefore, a group of Member States has agreed to undertake 2 comprehensive and integrated Important Projects of Common European Interest, one focusing on AI (services) and the other on infrastructure deployment (hardware).
Goal of the IPCEI AI
The goal of the IPCEI AI is the development of a next-generation AI ecosystem for the European Union providing latest AI training and development technologies. This requires secure access to high-quality data sets and ensuring the availability of state-of-the-art AI technologies, thereby significantly increasing the adoption rate of AI solutions in European industries by offering easy-to-use AI applications with low ramp-up effort.
The project should focus on:
- Development of a first ever next generation AI continuum for the EU that includes:
- Research and development of open and competitive AI foundation models: New foundational frontier models, next-generation AI model training technologies and methods, incl. innovative post-training techniques, such as fine-tuning for specific sector offerings.
- Enablement of sovereign European cloud services and essential components for AI training and deployment (including resource management and computation distribution).
- Development of new energy efficiency technologies to train and run AI models.
- Secure and safe access to high-quality data sets for AI:
- Development of technologies for the availability and access to high-quality and structured data sets for AI under European data privacy and security regulations.
- Integration of new solutions for data storage and management, database administration, data processing, and analytics.
- Development of advanced AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) approaches tailored to the needs of AI developers and users, especially SMEs. This will enable the broad adoption of AI models to address specific use cases across various industrial sectors. This includes:
- Development of advanced tools and frameworks to facilitate the development process and the deployment of AI models.
- Creation of a framework enabling access to AI models and end-to-end capabilities through APIs.
- Development and deployment of next generation inference and AI training services.
- Development of a common open-source framework to ensure security and high interoperability of European solutions. Substantial building block is an active developer community to create and maintain the code for an open-source toolbox to allow for easy creation of highly customisable AI solutions for industries.
- Systematic integration of next generation AI models into applications and interconnection services (for example, telco network services), addressing common use cases within specific industrial sectors and public administrations
Further information to assist applicants
Ireland is one of 13 EU Member States which, in collaboration with the EU Commission as part of the JEF-IPCEI has developed a Value-Chain document for IPCEI AI. This comprehensive document provides the necessary background, scope and objectives of this IPCEI proposal to assist applicants with their applications. It is strongly recommended that applicants consult this document.
IPCEI CIC
Global developments in AI are accelerating fast, injecting a sense of urgency: the European Union must foster an environment in which computing, interconnectivity, cloud, AI and software providers can grow and provide AI capacities and services to industries, academia, public sector and citizens. This should be achieved along a distributed computing and software stack, from bare metal solutions to specialised AI services.
Goal of the IPCEI CIC
The objective of the IPCEI CIC is to develop a sovereign computing infrastructure in Europe, provided by a multi-provider architecture, not limited to but focusing on the deployment of AI solutions. To ensure broad economic benefits, the supported projects should contribute directly to the development of the European digital value chain – from the construction of data centres to the provision of cloud services. The ability to train and run AI solutions at the location where the data is generated is important. It is a systemic approach to a federated distributed ecosystem with intelligent orchestration of distributed computing and connectivity functions allowing for secure and confidential transfer and processing of mass data. The project should focus on:
1. Infrastructure deployment:
- Deployment of a scalable Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), which is highly agile consisting of cloud and edge platforms on a European scale to meet current and expected future demand.
- Regional deployment of infrastructure as part of a sovereign EU-wide network. This network should be interoperable and accessible through open and non-discriminatory access, pricing, and network operation to all interested parties
- Deployment of state-of-the-art European cloud and AI energy efficiency technologies, to best meet the innovation criteria, particularly with regard to the environmental footprint.
- Deployment of competitive European cloud and AI services. This way, all European industries can benefit from state-of-the-art cloud and AI infrastructure and associated cross-border services.
2. Federation and connection in a network of sovereign EU-wide cross-border interconnected infrastructures that act as a compute continuum:
- Creation of a federated, distributed ecosystem of infrastructures on a European scale operated on common rules and conventions.
- Integration in a common architecture framework: The sovereign infrastructure should be deployed using IPCEI-CIS technologies (or equivalent technologies) to provide seamless operations, for example, to leverage the development and training of AI models.
- Ensuring interoperability to allow multiple entries (from edge to cloud), applying a continuum concept for the purpose of the analysis, processing, storage, and data generation capabilities.
- Generation of blueprints of functional infrastructure.
- Focus on secure and energy efficient compute technologies.
- Ensuring multipurpose capabilities able to operate mission critical uses cases, not limited to AI.
Ireland is one of 11 EU Member States which, in collaboration with the EU Commission as part of the JEF-IPCEI, has developed a Value-Chain document for IPCEI CIC. This comprehensive document provides the necessary background, scope and objectives of this IPCEI proposal to assist applicants with their applications. It is strongly recommended that applicants consult this document.
The role of direct participants, associated partners and indirect participants
Participation in IPCEIs can be in the form of direct participants (DPs), associated partners (APs) or indirect participants (IPs). Direct participants may be funded under the IPCEI instrument, whereas associated partners may be funded under the General Block Exemption Fund (GBER).
Direct participants
Direct participants are companies that are funded by Member States to conduct research, development, and first industrial application projects, contributing to a larger, integrated European value chain. Their primary role is to carry out their own projects in close collaboration with other DPs through cross-border partnerships, creating synergies and driving innovation. They must also share their results and knowledge widely with the wider European scientific and industrial community.
Direct participant projects are typically funded under the IPCEI instrument and receive a minimum State aid contribution of €50 million and must be notified to, and approved by, the EU Commission. They undergo detailed annual reporting nationally and to the EU Commission.
Associated partners
The goal of the category of associated partners is to give interested companies or Research Organisations (ROs) – that are not IPCEI direct participants – the chance to participate in the IPCEI and to strengthen the IPCEI ecosystem in Europe. Associated partners’ projects, depending on the nature of the IPCEI, can be all different kinds of organisations (undertakings of any size or ROs) and projects (not limited to research projects as it has been the case in previous research-related IPCEIs) located within an EU Member State, EEA state, or EU candidate country.
Associated partner projects are typically funded via GBER, receiving a State aid contribution of less than €50 million. Unlike IPCEI direct participants, associated partners are not subject to the (pre)-notification process to the Commission under the IPCEI Communication. However, based on past IPCEIs, their contribution to an IPCEI can play an important complementary role (for example, in contributing to fulfilling and adding to the objectives of an IPCEI, enlarging the IPCEI direct participants spillover commitments, and so on).
Indirect partners
Organisations or undertakings, such as research organisations, academics, SMEs and large enterprises which neither participate as IPCEI direct participant nor are involved as associated partner in an IPCEI, which are located within Ireland, and which collaborate with at least one IPCEI direct participant or associated partner within an IPCEI, can be represented as indirect partners in an IPCEI. These indirect partners contribute to the objectives of an IPCEI through their collaborations with IPCEI direct participants or associated partners. They may be invited to networking activities with the IPCEI direct participants and associated partners. Indirect partners are not assessed by the EU Commission in the context of the IPCEI process but by their respective Member State as far as the fulfilment of the conditions agreed by Member States for the qualification of indirect partner. Indirect partners do not receive notified State aid approval based on the IPCEI Communication from their respective Member State. Indirect partners may or may not receive State aid from a national funding scheme (not limited to RDI work), including GBER, including support not necessarily qualifying as aid, - they can also be self-financed.
Please use the links above for more detailed information on the role of each class of participant.
Assessment criteria
DETE represents Ireland on the JEF-IPCEI as Irelands national Managing Authority. The JEF-IPCEI is comprised of EU Member State Managing Authorities and the EU Commission. The overarching objectives of the JEF-IPCEI are to identify areas of strategic EU interest for potential future IPCEIs and to increase the effectiveness of the design, assessment and implementation of IPCEI. The JEF-IPCEI has agreed standardised application templates for the submission of expressions of interest at the national level. These expressions of interest will be in the form of outline project proposals which will be completed using the standardised application templates. These templates are designed to capture all the information required by Member States to assess project proposals at the national level, based on the EU Commission’s IPCEI Communication.
Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:
- alignment with the objectives of the IPCEI and wider EU objectives
- level of innovation
- potential for collaboration
- impact
- spillover effects
Projects can be supported as an "Important Project of Common European Interest" according to Art. 107(3)(b) of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. Specific criteria for the assessment of compatibility of State aid to promote the execution of IPCEI projects are further elaborated in European Commission’s Communication on the criteria for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of IPCEI.[2] This Communication gives guidance on the assessment of public financing for IPCEIs under Union State aid rules. Please read this document carefully for full details of the criteria used for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of important projects of common European interest.
Submitting a proposal
Companies and organisations, in particular SMEs (as defined by the European Commission[3]), and / or consortia from the fields of AST, AI and CIC, with research and production in Ireland that are willing to participate in an integrated European project can submit their project proposals, completing the appropriate application template, by 6pm on Wednesday, 4 February 2026.
Please note that there are separate application templates for seeking funding as direct participants under the IPCEI instrument and those seeking funding as associated partners under the GBER. The IPCEI instrument is the mechanism for funding direct participant projects (typically seeking funding in excess of €50 million) and GBER is the mechanism for funding associated partners with projects seeking less than €50 million). Further information on the role and responsibilities of direct participants and associated partners can be viewed using the links.
Please download the appropriate template for your project application. The templates are available to download at the bottom of this page. Please note that only direct participant applications require a completed Funding Gap Template for projects typically seeking funding of €50 million or more. However, if you are intending to submit a project application which is seeking funding in the €40-50 million range, please contact DETE IPCEI@enterprise.gov.ie at an early stage of your application for guidance on which templates you should complete. This will be assessed on a case-by-case basis as some projects below the €50 million threshold may be more appropriate as direct participant projects rather than associated partner projects. Direct participant proposals, if selected, will need to be further developed into full format project proposals for notification to the EU Commission. Associated partner proposals, if selected, will not be subject to notification to the EU Commission.
In the case of IPCEI CIC only, the EU Commission has expressed a preference for this IPCEI to be made up of direct participants. This is due to the constraints around infrastructure funding within the GBER. Therefore, all project proposal for IPCEI CIC may need to be submitted using the IPCEI Application Template and Funding Gap Template. Where a consortium wishes to submit a proposal, each member of the consortium will have to submit a separate application, unless the consortium has been established as a legal entity, where a leader has been legally defined. Please contact the DETE IPCEI team for guidance if you are considering developing a project proposal as an associated partner.
Completed applications should be sent, using the proposal template, to IPCEI@enterprise.gov.ie with the title of the relevant IPCEI as the subject line. Completed applications to be submitted by 6pm on Wednesday, 4 February 2026.
Please note that this is a competitive funding call. The submission of a project concept within the framework of the call for expressions of interest neither establishes a claim to public funding in the intended IPCEI or any other form of public funding.
What happens if your project is selected
Following the assessment of submitted projects, should your project be selected to progress to the next stage, it is anticipated that you shall be notified in March 2026. Selections will be subject to Government approval, before proceeding to EU Matchmaking. At this point, you will also be required to develop your outline project proposal into a full format project proposal. Guidance on this process will be provided at that stage, but next steps will include international matchmaking with other EU Member States to identify collaborations and to begin work on the detailed integrated IPCEI project description (known as the chapeau document). It is hoped that projects will be notified to the EU Commission in the second half of 2026 and projects will commence by the end of 2026/early 2027, subject to approval of final project proposals by the EU Commission.
Contacts
For any queries, please first see the FAQs. For anything further, please contact IPCEI@enterprise.gov.ie.
Confidentiality
All parties involved in this call for expressions of interest for participation in these IPCEIs make a commitment to ensure the confidentiality of any and all documents and information sent as a result of an application related to this call, regardless of result of pre-selection process.
Information session
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment is organising a virtual information session dedicated to the Call for Expressions of Interest for the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on Advanced Semiconductor Technology (AST), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Compute Infrastructure Continuum (CIC). The session will cover the main aspects of these IPCEI, as well as the possible ways to participate for interested companies.
This information session will be held on Friday, 5 December 2025 at 10am. The event will take place online and will be recorded.
Please register to sign up as a participant for this session.
[1] The majority of the total project funding must come from the companies proposing the project. Applicants have to demonstrate that their project would not be carried out without State support because it displays a ‘funding gap’. In other words, without public funding you will not implement your project. Therefore, you have to provide realistic and credible financial projections justified by company internal documents or independent studies. It must be calculated using the IPCEI Funding Gap template, which can be found at the bottom of this page. There is no pre-determined ratio between private and public funding and the amount of State-aid funding sought for any project must be supported by a funding gap assessment and this will be examined on a case-by-case basis. Project proposals that rank highest against the criteria of the call, which includes a return-on-investment assessment, may be considered for co-funding. As this is a competitive call, where projects rank equally on innovation, the ratio of funding sought may be a determining factor in terms of projects selected.
[2] EUR-Lex - C(2021)8481 - EN - EUR-Lex
[3] ‘The category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is made up of enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million.’ Extract of Article 2 of the annex to Recommendation 2003/361/EC