ASSOCIATION POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT DES RECHERCHES AUPRES DES UNIVERSITES DE L ACADEMIE DE GRENOBL

Their core work

ADR CMP is a Grenoble-based research support association that operates the CMP (Circuits Multi-Projets) service bureau — one of France's primary access points for Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) prototyping, where researchers and small companies share a silicon or photonics fabrication run to produce custom chips or devices at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated wafer. Their practical function is to lower the barrier to microelectronics and photonics fabrication: they provide access to professional IC design CAD tools, organize shared fabrication runs through foundry networks, and train first-time users who lack in-house semiconductor manufacturing expertise. In the Europractice ecosystem, they act as a national access node — channeling European academic and industrial demand for affordable chip prototyping toward established foundries. This positions them less as a research lab and more as a specialized service infrastructure that makes advanced silicon design practical for universities, research centers, and technology SMEs.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two projects, the evolution is limited but readable: their first engagement (MIRPHAB, 2016) was tightly scoped around a specific fabrication technology — mid-infrared photonics for sensing — with no accompanying keyword metadata, suggesting a technical specialist role in a narrow domain. By 2019, NEXTS shows a deliberate broadening into a full-service platform role: MPW prototyping, CAD tools, user training, and smart system integration all appear together, pointing toward a service-provider identity rather than a research-contributor identity. The trend is away from single-technology participation and toward operating as a comprehensive access infrastructure for the broader European microelectronics community.

They are consolidating their identity as a national gateway for affordable chip prototyping and design tool access, making them a strong consortium candidate for any H2020 or Horizon Europe project that needs to offer fabrication access as a service to end users.

How they like to work

ADR CMP has participated exclusively as a consortium partner — never as coordinator — across both H2020 projects, which is consistent with their service-infrastructure role: they bring a specific capability (fabrication access, CAD tools, user support) rather than leading research agendas. With 22 unique partners across 11 countries in just two projects, they operate inside large, multi-partner consortia, which fits the Europractice model of broad pan-European service networks. Working with them likely means engaging a reliable service node that delivers defined access services rather than a research partner that will co-design experiments or share IP.

Despite only two projects, ADR CMP has built a network of 22 unique partners across 11 countries — a high partner density that reflects the consortium-heavy nature of Europractice-linked projects. Their reach is genuinely pan-European, spanning microelectronics research centers, universities, and industrial users across multiple EU member states.

What sets them apart

ADR CMP's differentiator is not research output but fabrication access: they are one of the few French entities that formally operates MPW prototyping services within the EU-backed Europractice framework, giving them a structural role that most universities and research institutes cannot replicate. For a consortium that needs to offer chip prototyping or photonics fabrication to its end users — especially SMEs or academic groups without foundry relationships — ADR CMP fills a gap that no amount of scientific expertise can substitute. Their explicit focus on first-time users also makes them valuable in projects with a technology transfer or capacity-building dimension.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NEXTS
  Their largest project (EUR 1.23M) and the one that best defines their identity — operating as the French access node within the Europractice extended services platform for European microelectronics prototyping and CAD tool distribution.
• MIRPHAB
  Demonstrates their capability in photonics fabrication beyond standard silicon CMOS, specifically mid-infrared devices for chemical sensing — a niche with growing industrial relevance in gas detection and spectroscopy.