Dipl.-Ing. Ralf Bornefeld has been elected as the first Chair of the Governing Board of the newly formed Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking (KDT JU). He succeeds Dr. Sabine Herlitschka, CEO/CTO of Infineon Austria, as chair of the Governing Board of the predecessor ECSEL JU. This news was announced by KDT JU on 14 December 2021.
About the new Chair of KDT JU
Being currently a Senior Vice President of the Automotive Electronics division at Robert Bosch GmbH., Ralf Bornefeld has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor field – from SME to large enterprises.
“Key technologies like semiconductors, with applications critical to our society such as communications, healthcare, green energy, aerospace – just to name a few – need to be anchored well in Europe. Europe needs to catch-up where needed and stay at the forefront of digital technologies, and this requires cooperation that is intrinsic to a joint undertaking, and decisive and quick actions to compete with fast-moving regions.”
KDT JU Objective
The launch of KDT Joint Undertakings was officially published on 30 November 2021. The overarching objective of KDT JU is to support the digital transformation of all economic and societal sectors and the European Green Deal, as well as support R&I towards the next generation of microprocessors.
The urgency of developing electronic components and systems for achieving the European Green Deal and digital transformation goals has demanded an even deeper engagement of all members in defining the work to be financed by KDT JU. The public and private stakeholders have agreed to select topics in line with national and European policy objectives, as well as the needs of all industrial sectors.
KDT JU’s first calls to start already in 2021
The Governing Board and the Public Authorities Board promptly adopted all decisions necessary to launch the first KDT JU calls on 16 December 2021. This year’s special attention goes to AI/Edge and Open-Source hardware such as RISC-V.
More details about the KDT JU calls will be released in the coming days. All the updated information is available directly on the KDT JU website.