IEEE ISVLSI 2025: European Chips Competence Centres Status, Networking, and Collaboration Opportunities
The leading IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI – ISVLSI 2025 conference that focuses on advances and emerging trends in VLSI design, technologies, and systems, took place this year in Kalamata, Greece, from 6 to 9 July 2025. gathering top experts from academia and industry.
On 8 July, the Hellenic Chips Competence Centre (HCCC) has presented and participated in a high-level strategic session entitled “European Chips Competence Centres: Status, Networking & Collaboration Opportunities.”
Mr. John Kikidis, Global Ecosystem Lead at Renesas Electronics, Board Member in the Hellenic Emerging Technologies Industry Association (HETiA), and Member of the Executive Board at the Hellenic Chips Competence Centre (HCCC) served as speaker and moderator for the session. He delivered a comprehensive presentation outlining the strategic objectives, organizational framework, and the initiatives of the Hellenic Chips Competence Centre, highlighting Greece’s ambition to contribute to the European semiconductor landscape and the alignment of national actions to the broader objectives of the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU).
The session, that has been attended by approximately 40 distinguished participants from across Europe, also featured a presentation of the Italian Chips Competence Centre by Professor Davide Rossi (Alma Mater Studio rum – Università di Bologna), Director of the Research Line on Digital Design and Open Hardware at Chips IT.
It concluded with a high-level panel discussion, moderated by Mr. Kikidis, during which leading experts and academics exchanged best practices and explored strategic collaboration opportunities among national Chips Competence Centres.
Panelists included:
- Prof. Juergen Becker, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
- Prof. Diana Goehringer, Technische Universität Dresden (Germany)
- Michael Huebner, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (Germany)
- Prof. Sakir Sezer, Queen’s University Belfast / NVIDIA (United Kingdom)
- Prof. Cristina Silvano, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
- Prof. Alex Birbas, University of Patras (Greece)
- Prof. Dimitrios Soudris, National Technical University of Athens (Greece)
The exchange not only emphasized the importance of national Chips Competence Centres as engines that advance technological innovation, industrial excellence and economic growth, but also how they can strengthen the dialogue, networking, and alignment of strategic actions across Europe’s microelectronics ecosystem.
