ESSenTIAL will bring silicon photonics within reach of European small and medium sized enterprises, thereby building on the track record of the Silicon Photonics Platform ePIXfab (www.epixfab.eu) and its integration into Europractice. To this end, ESSenTIAL offers affordable access to standardized active and passive silicon photonic IC and packaging technology, a path from design to manufacturing and hands-on training.Based on a consortium of major research institutes with silicon photonics expertise, ESSenTIAL will reach out to European industry and will support them to evaluate silicon photonics in the context of concrete applications and markets. To ensure low-cost early access and scalability to manufacturing, the maturity of silicon photonic IC technology will be enhanced by setting up a library of generic devices, a level of process and device benchmarking and a well maintained design flow. For the first time, devices in a standard package will be offered to allow easy testing. Training on the IC and packaging services will be offered, including hands-on design training. Maturity, standardization and sustainability will be driven by a steadily growing user base, from Europe and elsewhere.ESSenTIAL will ensure that ePIXfab will keep Europe's lead in fabless silicon photonics and will turn it into and industry-relevant platform.