Advocacy
To support our vision, ODE4EC actively promotes the use and development of open source technologies across Europe's chip design landscape. Sustainable change requires that the broader ecosystem, policy makers, funding bodies, and industry decision-makers understand why open source is not just a cost-saving measure, but a strategic foundation for European semiconductor sovereignty.
ODE4EC engages on multiple fronts: presenting at industry and academic events, contributing to policy discussions, and making the case that open EDA tools, open process design kits, and open educational resources are essential infrastructure. By giving voice to the open source chip design community in spaces where decisions are made, ODE4EC works with FOSSi Foundation on ensuring that European chip ambitions are built on a foundation that is transparent, collaborative, and enduring.
Ecosystem Events
ODE4EC is present at key events in the chip design and open source community. These are the spaces where practitioners meet, ideas are exchanged, and collaborations begin. By organizing workshops, giving talks, and facilitating discussions, ODE4EC helps connect the people building the open source chip design ecosystem and keeps the community informed about the initiative's progress and goals.
Funding Bodies and Policy Makers
The ODE4EC leadership has been at the forefront of making the case for open source chip design to European funding bodies and policy makers, and the results speak for themselves.
In 2024, an open letter on the importance of open source EDA tools for academia, was signed by over 500 researchers across Europe. The letter called on funding agencies to treat open EDA tools as a primary priority, support independent open design platforms, and fund gaps in the open source toolchain through community-driven development.
Based on this, the FOSSi Foundation led the development of a Recommendations and Roadmap for Open-Source EDA in Europe. This community document identified the key gaps in the European open source chip design ecosystem and proposed concrete actions to address them. First presented at ORConf 2024 in Gothenburg and refined through over 70 community contributions, the roadmap directly shaped EU funding priorities and a funding call of the Chips Joint Undertaking.
A second open letter Open-Source Chips for Europe, signed by over 330 researchers and practitioners, called urgently for publicly funded chip fabrication runs and open process design kits to give every European student access to silicon. Together, these efforts contributed to approximately 40 million euros of funding being directed toward open source EDA tooling and tapeout access.
If you are a policy maker, funding body or in general interested, feel free to get in touch to learn more about the opportunities of open source chip design and why it needs to be supported.