{"id":463435,"date":"2023-11-11T08:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T07:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=463435"},"modified":"2023-11-11T08:34:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-11T07:34:00","slug":"optimism-all-around-during-the-panel-discussion-on-europes-photonic-strategy-but-beware-of-the-political-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/optimism-all-around-during-the-panel-discussion-on-europes-photonic-strategy-but-beware-of-the-political-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimism all around during the panel discussion on Europe\u2019s photonic strategy, \u201cbut beware of the political processes\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the Chips Act<\/a>, the EU aims to create incentives to increase the semiconductor production capacity, provide funds to stimulate technology leadership and take measures to make the chip supply chains more robust. The photonic chips industry is well aligned in the Act. But how feasible are these goals, knowing that competition in China and the U.S. is also gearing up? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a panel discussion at the PIC Summit Europe<\/a>, Erwin Nijsse (Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy), Tom Berendsen (European Parliament), Rudi de Winter (CEO of X-FAB), and Werner Steinhoegl (European Commission), reflected on the vision of a group of Photonics CEOs to create a world-leading, resilient PIC supply-chain. Johan Feenstra, CEO at Smart Photonics, was there as well, to offer more insights into the plans of the CEO group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u20ac4.25 billion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

CEOs from eight of Europe\u2019s largest integrated photonics companies have presented a plan<\/a> to build a resilient European supply chain for photonic integrated circuits. The plan calls for \u20ac4.25 billion in funding over eight years and a range of recommendations to enable the European integrated photonics industry to become a global leader and have the ability to supply EU customers autonomously.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Europe\u2019s largest integrated photonics companies call on the EU to help scale the industry<\/div>
CEOs from eight of Europe\u2019s largest integrated photonics companies have presented a plan to build a resilient European supply chain for photonic integrated circuits. <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

In his first response, shared by video, Thomas Skordas (European Commission) praised the CEOs for the right timing of the recommendations and for referring to the European Chips Act. \u201cOur first aim is to make sure that the European semiconductor and photonics industry is getting the right support to be able to invest in Europe, creating the manufacturing facilities that we need in the future, doubling our production, and reducing our technological dependence on those parts of the world that may cause some problems for geostrategic and other reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skordas invited the CEOs to work together with the Commission. \u201cWe have an ambitious industry that is ready to invest in photonics, one of the still emerging technologies for Europe where we have a lot of applications and a lot of strengths both in terms of knowledge and skills. We are ready to work further with the whole photonics sector system to achieve an ambition aligned with your vision and aims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optimism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Werner Steinhoegl showed even more optimism when talking about the European ambition in photonics. \u201cOf course\u201d, he said, \u201cthe budget is never sufficient. But optimistic as I am, I can say the money will be found if the case is there. So, we are ready to play our role.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinhoegl expects to have \u201ca political window of opportunity\u201d, now that Europe has decided to get less dependent on the rest of the world for their chips production. \u201cWe saw in the Corona crisis how important chips are. They are everywhere. They are in cars, they are in medical equipment, they are in critical infrastructure, they are in defense. That is why we went for this goal to build a value chain of at least 20% of global market share. Of course, that\u2019s a political goal: 20% is the population or the market size of Europe compared to the world. Anyway, the idea is that we get less dependent, and this needs to be done at a European level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too big for the Netherlands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With ASML in Veldhoven, the Netherlands is an important player in Europe, Steinhoegl said. \u201cBut it’s my duty to say that this is even too big for the Netherlands, it really makes sense to do it on a European level. That\u2019s also why I am happy with the recommendations I received today. They say there is a trend for photonic chips, which is growing stronger than average in the semiconductor industry. This means there will be a market. Large companies are not only interested in this, they are doing it. We can further ignite this by joint activity, by cooperation. We can’t do anything without industry, without research. That\u2019s exactly why the Commission, with the Member States and the European Parliament created, the framework conditions with the Chips Act. We are ready to play our role, also financially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
The European Chips Act: Will the EU get it right this time?<\/div>
Europe is launching a new semiconductor strategy in an attempt to increase its global market share from 9% to 20% by 2030.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Talking from a Dutch perspective, Erwin Nijsse was able to reassure mr. Steinhoegl that the Netherlands is looking at the photonic chips industry with a European vision. \u201cWe will organize ourselves with European countries to think not so much about what I would call silent competition but true collaboration, building on each other’s strengths, in new forms of collaboration so we can build European champions together.\u201d Nijsse called the report \u201ca start\u201d, waiting for much more. \u201cWe should continue to move the ambition together. The Dutch government will cement that ambition in national goals, where, again, private and public collaboration will need to come together to realize this. As a matter of fact, I’m extremely optimistic that the European Commission can actually fund the initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Center of gravity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Johan Feenstra, one of the initiators of the CEO recommendations, fully agreed with the other speakers about the necessity of collaboration. \u201cThings are moving from having been vertically integrated for a long time into a horizontal value chain where people specialize. That is part of the opportunity that we have in Europe. We pull back manufacturing into Europe and with that, you create the center of gravity here in Europe, making use of all the R&D that we have done and been building on top of that. By that, you suck in the rest of the value chain as well. I think that’s part of what we wanted to do as a CEO group: we cover the whole value chain: Design is there, testing is there, packaging is there, manufacturing is there. It also covers the whole of Europe. I fully agree that while the Netherlands is very strong in integrated photonics, we cannot do this alone. We have to embrace our partners in Europe and build this whole value chain in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
ASML’s CEO warns for impact of migration restriction and isolating China<\/div>
Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML, was a guest on the Dutch news tv program Nieuwsuur yesterday. He emphasized the need for knowledge migrants and warned agains export limitations.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Political game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although Tom Berendsen, a member of the European Parliament, praised the recommendations and the Commission\u2019s response, he also expressed his concerns. \u201cThe interesting thing what you see happening is that the Chips Act is part of a bigger industry strategy in Europe. Industry politics was something that wasn’t on the table for many years. Now you see that governments want to actively engage in industries. That’s, of course, also a risky thing. If you do it, you need to do it right, and you need to do it consistently for a longer period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ewit Roos, CEO at PhotonDelta, added another fear: \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing I worry about, it\u2019s the political process. We will start talking about what all the member states are doing and how we can divide the money to get some consensus. Like \u2018if you support me, then I support you, and then I get money from you, and you help me\u2019. It\u2019s a political game. But do we have time to play this political game in Europe? How can we start investing in the areas where we excel, and potentially can become superior and have a position in the world? So that’s my fear – if we’re going to have that political route, we’ll never make it in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Werner Steinhoegl immediately tried to comfort Roos. \u201cThe idea is not to spread activities all over Europe. It’s about complementarity. In photonics chips, there are a couple of important platforms. We want to see that these are covered most effectively. So it’s about looking at the activities which are promising and then to see how can they work together, how do they complement each other, where the synergies are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Chips Act, the EU aims to create incentives to increase the semiconductor production capacity, provide funds to stimulate technology leadership and take measures to make the chip supply chains more robust. The photonic chips industry is well aligned in the Act. But how feasible are these goals, knowing that competition in China and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1568,"featured_media":493250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-partner.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8553],"tags":[3645,82082,82084],"location":[70256,6763],"article_type":[60595],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-463435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","tag-photonics","tag-pic-summit","tag-pic-summit-2023","location-eu","location-netherlands","article_type-analysis"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"CEOs from eight of Europe\u2019s largest integrated photonics companies have presented a plan to build a resilient European supply chain for photonic chips. At PIC Summit, the first response was given.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Bart Brouwers","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/brewbart\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-11-07-at-12.57.57.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Digital<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Digital<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Photonics<\/a>","PIC Summit<\/a>","PIC Summit 2023<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Photonics<\/span>","PIC Summit<\/span>","PIC Summit 2023<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 11, 2023","modified":"Updated on November 11, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 11, 2023 8:34 am","modified":"Updated on November 11, 2023 8:34 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=463435"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=463435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}