There is no IPCEI application form and no Brussels portal. The route runs through your own government, in six steps. Here is the map, with real dates from the current semiconductor and AI wave.
Step one is the national call: your ministry publishes a call for expressions of interest once its IPCEI wave takes shape. Step two, national selection: ministries screen the proposals and choose which companies represent the country in the joint project.
Step three is matchmaking: selected companies from all participating countries meet to connect their projects into one value chain; for AST and AI, that happened in Berlin in March 2026. Step four, joint design: Member States draft the chapeau document while each direct participant writes its individual project portfolio. Step five, notification: the Member States jointly pre-notify and then formally notify the Commission; the current wave targets the second half of 2026. Step six, the Commission decision, expected in 2027 for this wave, after which aid can be granted and projects run at full scale.
The six steps, with dates from the 2026 AST and AI-CIC wave.
Two features of this process surprise most first-time applicants. The competition happens at national level, against other companies from your own country, before anything reaches Brussels. And the design phase is long; companies fund their own participation for a year or more before any aid decision exists.
The takeaway.
By the time a national call is published, the wave has been in preparation for years. Watch the JEF-IPCEI agenda and the Design Support Hub, and talk to your ministry before the call, not after it.
Sources
– DETE (Ireland) – Call for expressions of interest: IPCEI AST & AI-CIC (2026)
– European Commission – IPCEI Design Support Hub
– European Commission – JEF-IPCEI past meetings and minutes
– IPCEI Communication, OJ C 528, 30.12.2021 (EUR-Lex)