Chips JU Opens New Funding Opportunities and Launches a Strategic Call for a European Autonomous Driving Stack
The Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) has launched a new round of funding opportunities worth more than €300 million, supporting research, innovation, skills development, capacity building, and strategic infrastructure across Europe’s semiconductor and electronics ecosystem.
The calls span the two pillars of the programme: Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) and the Chips for Europe Initiative. While the ECS pillar supports collaborative research and innovation projects, the Chips for Europe Initiative focuses on strategic capacity-building actions, including skills development, chip design training, AI chip demonstrators, AI computing platforms, and international cooperation.
Among the newly launched opportunities, a particularly relevant topic for the CCAM, automotive, software, and semiconductor communities is the call “Preparing a European autonomous driving stack ecosystem building on next-generation SDV software and hardware computing architectures”.
As vehicles become increasingly software-defined and automated, Europe faces the challenge of developing a competitive, interoperable, and sovereign autonomous driving ecosystem. The new action aims to bring together key stakeholders from across the automotive, mobility, software, hardware, semiconductor, and research sectors to establish a common vision for the future European autonomous driving stack.
The objective is to coordinate existing European initiatives and create an open reference architecture together with a sustainable roadmap for next-generation Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) and autonomous driving technologies. By fostering collaboration across the ecosystem, the initiative aims to reduce fragmentation, promote interoperability, support industrial competitiveness, and strengthen Europe’s technological leadership in automated mobility.
The action is expected to engage automotive manufacturers, suppliers, semiconductor providers, software developers, research and technology organisations, universities, industry associations, and other stakeholders contributing to the future of software-defined and automated vehicles.
Rather than focusing on the development of individual technologies, the call seeks to build the foundations of a coordinated European ecosystem that can accelerate innovation and support the long-term deployment of autonomous driving solutions across Europe.
The call has an indicative EU budget of €2 million and is implemented as a Coordination and Support Action (CSA). Applications are open until 22 September 2026.
More information and application details are available here: Apply For Funding
Call details here: Call Details
