About VOICES.
We are building the institution that Europe's fabless semiconductor industry has always needed — and never had.
A critical gap at the heart of Europe's chip strategy.
Europe has over 30 semiconductor associations and clusters. None of them is dedicated to fabless companies.
That absence matters. The fabless model — designing chips without owning a factory — is responsible for half of all global semiconductor revenues and virtually all of the industry's most disruptive innovations. Yet Europe holds less than 1% of the global fabless market, down from 4% just fifteen years ago.
This is not a talent problem. Europe has exceptional chip designers, world-class universities, and a growing startup scene. The problem is structural: fragmented support, no collective voice, and an institutional landscape built around manufacturers, not designers.
VOICES exists to fill that gap.
To make European fabless visible, connected, and influential.
From the earliest startup stage to global champion. We do this by establishing the European Fabless Semiconductor Association (EFSA): a permanent, independent, member-governed body registered in Belgium as an international non-profit (AISBL).
Funded initially through Horizon Europe, the association is designed to be fully self-sustaining by 2029 — driven by membership fees, sponsorships, and the value it creates for members.
What we stand for.
Information
The European funding and policy landscape is complex. We cut through the noise, providing members with timely, actionable intelligence on EU calls, policy consultations, and strategic opportunities — so they can focus on building chips, not tracking bureaucracy.
Finance
Europe's deep-tech funding gap is real. We connect fabless SMEs with the investors, public programmes, and co-investment instruments that match their actual stage and sector — and we advocate for funding mechanisms that work for hardware-heavy, decade-long innovation cycles.
Policy
The Chips Act, the Chips Joint Undertaking, IPCEI, Horizon Europe — these programmes will shape European semiconductor competitiveness for a generation. EFSA ensures fabless companies have a seat at every table where these decisions are made.
Infrastructure
EDA licences, pilot lines, Multi-Project Wafer runs, foundry access — the tools of chip design are expensive and hard to access for SMEs. We aggregate demand, negotiate collectively, and connect members to the infrastructure they need.
The missing piece of the Chips Act.
Three landmark European reports — the Draghi Report on competitiveness, the Letta Report on the Single Market, and the European Commission's Chips Act Staff Working Document — converge on the same diagnosis: Europe risks permanent dependence on foreign chip suppliers unless it builds sovereign design capability at scale.
The €43 billion Chips Act is the answer to that challenge. But without dedicated infrastructure for fabless SMEs, those funds risk flowing to large corporations and foreign acquirers rather than to the innovators who need them most.
VOICES is the missing piece of the Chips Act. We are the mechanism that connects European fabless innovators to European semiconductor policy — and to each other.
How we're governed.
General Assembly
All paying members have a voice and a vote. The General Assembly meets annually to approve strategy, budget, and board elections.
Board of Directors
A diverse board of founding members and community-elected representatives provides strategic oversight and policy direction. Board seats are drawn from across EU member states and technology domains.
Management Team
A lean professional team handles day-to-day operations, member services, stakeholder engagement, and event management — with a Secretary-General responsible for EU and government relations.
Technical Working Groups
Volunteer member experts lead thematic working groups across technology domains: AI & HPC, automotive & safety, quantum & security, investment & scale-up, and policy advocacy.