The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, announced this Wednesday that the Inter-University Microelectronics Center (IMEC), based in Belgium, intends to install its second R&D center in Europe in Spain.
The Calviño department, together with the Ministry of Science, signed a declaration of intent with the IMEC on Tuesday. “Its second center in Europe will be in Spain and this represents a fundamental bridge between research, innovation and development of some of the fundamental elements of the chips”, assured the minister.
The IMEC -based in Leuven- is a world reference in semiconductor research and development. It has around 5,000 researchers from 95 countries and around 600 industrial partners, including “all the major international companies in the sector”, the Ministry of Economy highlighted in a statement.
The installation of the IMEC R&D center would mean a further step in the search for government investors in the chip industry. “It joins those of other important international operators in the field of semiconductors and microelectronics, such as Intel, Cisco, or more recently, Broadcom, which have expressed their intention to establish research or production centers in Spain”, added the portfolio directed by Calviño, which ensures that the Perte Chip has put Spain “on the European map of the design and manufacture of chips” in “just one year”.
Last week Broadcom announced an investment of 1,000 million dollars, about 920 million euros, in a chip factory in Spain. The place where the plant will be installed is not yet known. At the moment several communities are being considered, such as Andalusia, Valencia, Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha.
The objective is to strengthen the design and production capacities of the microelectronics and semiconductor industry in Spain and advance Europe’s strategic autonomy
