IDP has been awarded the contract for the new INNOFAB plant, a strategic scientific and technological infrastructure that will be unique in Spain and one of a kind in Europe, as part of the Catalunya Lidera Plan promoted by the Department of Economy and Finance of the Government of Catalonia.

INNOFAB will be located in the Parc de l’Alba, in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), and will have a built area of around 22,000 m2, including a clean room of more than 2,000 m2 dedicated to the development of innovative micro and nanotechnologies based on advanced semiconductors (‘beyond-CMOS’). This infrastructure will enable the scaling up of manufacturing processes and bridge the gap between research and commercial development of new chip prototypes.

The project involves the construction of three separate buildings:

• A FAB building of approximately 10,600 m², distributed over four floors of around 2,650 m² each.
• An office and laboratory building of approximately 7,300 m2.
• An auxiliary services building of approximately 4,000 m2, which will house the main power generation and distribution systems for the other buildings.

IDP will be responsible for developing the project using BIM (Building Information Modelling) methodology, which will ensure efficient management and compliance with the highest standards in terms of quality, deadlines and costs.

With a total planned investment of €400 million, the project is receiving European funding through NextGenerationEU funds. The Government of Catalonia approved the establishment of the INNOFAB Foundation as a non-profit public entity responsible for implementing the infrastructure, with a Board of Trustees made up of representatives from different departments and renowned experts in the field of research.

This facility will be the first infrastructure in Spain dedicated to the development of semiconductors of this type. It will provide services to start-ups, companies without their own factories and research centres, helping to attract innovative companies to Barcelona, which currently have to prefabricate their chips in other countries.

Among the main players in the ecosystem that will benefit from this infrastructure is the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), an international non-profit research centre located in Cerdanyola del Vallès. The ICN2 is dedicated to generating knowledge, materials and devices in three key fields: ICT, health and the environment, exploring new properties and applications at the nanoscale to improve everyday life.

This contract reinforces the position of IDP, a Bureau Veritas company, as a leading multidisciplinary engineering firm in the development of strategic infrastructure with high technological value and consolidates its experience in complex projects that contribute to scientific, industrial and economic progress in the region.