Today, January 30th, several meeings took place between the Commissioner of the Strategic Proyect for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of Microelectronics and Semiconductores (PERTE chip), Jaime Martorell, and entities within the sector in the Island of Tenerife, at the premises of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The meetings were chaired by the Counselor for Economic knowldege and Employment of the Canary Government, Elena Mañez, and were attended by the Director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo, and the Director of the Canary Agency for Research, Innovation, and the Information Society (ACIISI) Carlos Navarro.

The Commissioner of PERTE Chip, Jaime Martorell, started his visit to the Canary Islands in Tenerife, to get to know face to face the companies and academic institutions within the local ecosystem of semiconductors, CanaryChip.The aim of the Commissioner is to understand the capacity of the island’s semiconductor industry to contribute to the development of PERTE.

The Spanish Government foresees the start of tendering the projects included in PERTE Chip, whose main aim is  to reduce Spain’s dependence on external sources for the design and production of microelectronics and semiconductors, during the first half of 2023. The proyects, for a total of 12,250 million euros of which 9,350 will be used for factories, will be selected by competitive bids from the proposal which show the highest ability to satisfy the obectives of the strategic lines of the Plan.

The Autonomous Community has recently completed the process of public participaton in the CanaryChip Strategy 2022-2027, in which the framework for the development of the sector of microelectronics and semiconductor in the Archipelago, aligned with PERTE Chip nas been designed. Within this framework, during the meetings, PROEXCA and representatives of the ZEC (Canary Special Zone) have presented the value of the economic and fiscal regime of the islands for incentivating technological investment.

The Department of Instrumentation of the IAC presented to the Commissioner the developments carried out in the design of semiconductors for astrophysics and aerospace, both ground based, and lauhched, and which have made the Institute a centre of reference in this field.

They also showed the Commissioner the proposals for IAC projects for strengthening its capacity, and consolidating its leadership during the coming decade. 

Aftewards the Commissione visited the premises of the companies AgnosPCB, Arquimea y Woopti.

These companies operate within the Cluster Chip of the Canaries (C3), which includes around a dozen companies which provide employment both within the islands and elsewhere, with an annual volumen of business of some 78 million euros.