Funds released, Chips.IT Foundation takes off in Pavia

The gestation is over: with the release of the funds and the conclusion of the first recruitment calls, the journey of the Chips.It Foundation, one of the pillars of the national microelectronics plan, is now firmly underway in Pavia.

Piloting the operations as director since August is Carlo Reita, a 'lonely' presence on the staff that is now coming to an end. In fact, the calls for applications for the heads of two research lines and the first researchers have closed, and now the curricula selection phase has begun.

"At the end of the year, I think we will be able to reach a staff of 15," explains the director, "and then reach 50 researchers next year, when we will complete the set-up of at least two of the research axes that have been assigned to us. The crux, here as elsewhere, is to find the skills, because the supply of young people in these fields is unfortunately always limited'. The applications received, some of which came from abroad, have in any case made it possible to proceed with the start-up of the activities, which also include the immediate hiring of a couple of administrative figures, to manage relations with institutional bodies, verify the opportunities for calls for tenders and funding from Europe through the Chips Act and other instruments, and dialogue with industrial partners. At the same time, while the administrative staff will be scaled up by other units, we can finally proceed with investments, drawing on the annual budget of 25 million (+5 for the operation of the structure) set until 2030. The funds are released by the Ministry of the Economy on a quarterly basis and there are now almost 15 million euro available, relating to the third and fourth quarters of 2024, while the procedure to activate the resources relating to the first and second quarters is underway, a procedure that could speed up the Foundation's activities.

'Also with a view to attracting talent,' Reita explains, 'it is important to start creating an adequate structure by investing in equipment, test instruments and laboratories. My forecast is to start the procedure for a first investment lot of EUR 14 million by the end of the year in 2024, which will concern computing capacities for circuit design, emulation systems, and development. A second batch of investments to complete the first and for a further 20 million is planned when the other funds are released'. Resources that will be used to equip the various research lines, which are currently located in spaces granted by the University of Pavia, while waiting to be able to find a definitive location when fully operational, when the workforce will have to reach an order of magnitude of 120-150 units, the threshold envisaged for 2027.

'Later on, personnel expenses will become heavier,' explains Reita, 'but already now we are counting on working on investments, in order to build an advanced research infrastructure that is relevant to the objectives, i.e. to design and build circuits of near-industrial maturity. On a conventional scale that starts at level 1 (relevant principles of the technology are demonstrated) and goes up to 9 (real system, functioning, tested in an operational environment), it is technically a matter of realising level 5 or 6 projects, i.e. technologies whose functioning is demonstrated and validated in a relevant industrial environment.