6 March 2025 - The Chips Joint Undertaking welcomes the Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector^[1] announced by the European Commission on 5^th March, most notably for its focus on Innovation and Digitalisation, which is one of the five key pillars of this Automotive Action Plan.

This Action Plan follows the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the Automotive Industry. A central aspect of these discussions, spearheaded by Executive Vice-President Virkkunen, has been ‘Innovation and leadership in future technologies and capabilities’. In this context, the Automotive Action Plan underscores the critical role of digital technologies in shaping the future of the automotive industry.

In full alignment with the Automotive Action Plan and in order to implement relevant objectives of its first Pillar, the Chips Joint Undertaking has published three calls for proposals, focusing on the following areas:

• RISC-V Automotive Hardware Platform – advancing next-generation processors and AI chips for autonomous driving;

• Heterogeneous integration for high-performance automotive computing – harnessing heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging to enhance automotive computing capabilities;

• AI-assisted methods and tools for Software-Defined Vehicle engineering automation – leveraging AI to boost productivity in automotive software development.

These calls will mobilise up to EUR 240 million of EU and national funds and will leverage an additional EUR 240 million in private investment, bringing the total investment to EUR 480 million. These calls implement part of the first pillar of the Action Plan, notably the development of an in-vehicle computing architecture and a software platform for Software-Defined Vehicles. 

These topics are also referred to in the Chips JU’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) ^[2] for 2025 and related industrial roadmaps, including the one on RISC-V^[3]. Furthermore, the automotive actions under Work Programme 2025 complement the declaration by 15 OEMs, suppliers and national automotive associations, presented to Executive Vice-President Virkkunen during the Strategic Dialogue, to Collaborate on a European Software-Defined Vehicle of the Future Ecosystem.^[4]

Overall, these calls under the 2025 Work Programme underscore the strength of the Chips Joint Undertaking’s tripartite model, where the industry, Participating States and the European Commission collaboratively define strategic roadmaps that accelerate innovation in lockstep with technology trends.

Through this investment, Europe will reinforce its leadership in automotive electronics and software, support the digital transformation of the automotive industry, and enhance its competitiveness. An information session on the upcoming automotive industry related calls will be announced shortly.

^[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_635
https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/89b3143e-09b6-4ae6-a826-932b90ed0816_en?filename=Communication%20-%20Action%20Plan.pdf