The European Commission published a report on the projects of the Quantum Technologies Flagship during its initial phase and their progress; it also sets the path ahead.
With the report on the initial three-year phase of the Quantum Technologies flagship, published on 31 January, the European Commission (EC) presented a review of the 24 funded projects and the wider context of the ambitious initiative. The Quantum Technology Flagship was the third major scheme of the European Commission’s Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships after the Human Brain Project and the Graphene Flagship. More recently a fourth flagship on Batteries was added.
The 10-year Quantum Technologies flagship launched in 2018 is planned to receive in total €1 billion through the EU framework programmes Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. It was set up to allow collaborative, long-term and innovative research to consolidate Europe’s scientific leadership and research excellence in quantum technologies. Furthermore, the flagship is thought to help translational endeavours to develop economic and societal impacting applications and products. With that, the flagship has a key role in achieving the targets set in the ECs communication ‘2030 Digital compass: the European way for the digital Decade’. This involves the goals to have the first EU computer with quantum acceleration by 2025 and being at the cutting edge of quantum capabilities by 2030. The first step in that direction was already made in October 2022 with the announcement of the six sites, which will host the first quantum computers. The computers will be integrated into existing EuroHPC supercomputer infrastructures. The quantum flagship was mainly prepared by the Coordination and Support Action for Quantum Technologies (QSA), which brought together main quantum stakeholders, including Swiss, and introduced the Quantum Community Network (QCN) as an exchange and connection platform to improve information sharing, coordination of flagship and national initiatives and gender equality in science. It is maintained by the successor of the QSA, the Coordination and Support Action of the quantum flagship (QUATS), which runs from 2022 to 2025.
The ramp-up phase of the flagship 2018-2022 involved the support of 21 projects covering the four mission-driven main domains of quantum research: i. communication, ii. computation, iii. simulation and, iv. sensing and metrology, complemented by basic quantum science. Eleven of these projects involved universities or companies from Switzerland. The results of the projects were quite promising, for example, it was possible to connect two quantum processors through an intermediate node and establish shared entanglement between multiple stand-alone quantum processors, both setting the foundation for a more complex quantum ‘internet’. Moreover, researchers were able to build a quantum computer system of globally competitive performance or develop two 100-qubit (quantum bits) analogue quantum simulators and thereby reached practical quantum advantage in scientific problems involving the study of new materials and phases of matter. Also, some of the world’s most advanced quantum sensors for improved medical imaging in diagnostics and spectroscopy or ultra-precise clocks were developed within the projects of the flagship.
Additional three projects were Coordination and Support Actions to develop an education ecosystem (QTEdu), identify win-win opportunities due to collaboration with countries strong in quantum research (InCoQFlag) and coordinate the whole flagship, update the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and build the community (Qflag). The SRA shapes the flagship, was drafted in 2017 by the QSA and updated in early 2020 using the input of more than 2000 experts.
The flagship was until now capable to fund 1’654 scientists from 236 organisations with a total of €193 million, allowing research leading to more than 1’300 paper publications; more than 200 additional publications are still under review. Also 25 start-up companies could be founded based on the more than 100 filed patents, of which more than 60 are already granted.
The report also identified the importance and positive effect of synergies by either exchanging approaches and methods, using results of other projects or common partners among different consortia. Overall, 196 scientists from across 21 projects were involved in collaborations with flagship projects not being their own.
The flagship report presents a story of big success, nonetheless there were various difficulties faced. One major issue was the skill gap in quantum tech, engineering and computer science, especially when it comes to inter- and cross-disciplinarity of research because right now there are just not enough proper educated researchers for PhD and Postdoc positions available. Furthermore, shortages of European suppliers for quantum components, delays in design and fabrication as well as Covid-19 related closures and delays were a problem.
Even if the funding under Horizon 2020 has ended already, the flagship will be supported in the period 2021-2027 by Horizon Europe with at least €500 million. The initiative’s projects which already started should be continued, while about 20 additional projects and one CSA are foreseen to be launched in the future. Moreover, an update of the Strategic Research and Industry Agenda (SRIA) was already published, strengthening the focus on industrial development and synergies with other EU initiatives in quantum, like EuroQCI, EuroHPC, QuantERA and the Chips Act. To boost the quantum-technology industry, the non-profit association European Quantum Industry Consortium was founded on the basis of the flagship’s success as well.
With the European Chips Act, the EC tries to conquer various chips and digital transition-based hurdles; one of the foreseen major actions is the setup of a Quantum chip pilot line, including the design, manufacturing and testing of quantum chips. This should foster the replacement of the currently hand-made and proprietary designs to allow the switch to large-scale production and mass-market applications. The Chips Act is still under negotiation, but with the adoption of the position of the European Parliament on 15 February 2023 and the previously adopted position of the European Council on 1 December 2022, the trilogues can already start in February. The Chips Act should get into force in the third quarter of 2023.