Europe is poised to lead the quantum race!
Members of the European Parliament, officials from the European Commission (EC), and representatives from member states, academia and industry gathered in early December to chart Europe’s strategies to advance the region’s technological leadership in quantum internet.
The lunch event, titled “Global Quantum Internet – Made in Europe. Translating groundbreaking R&D into world-leading innovation“, was organised at the sidelines of the European Innovation Area Summit 2023 taking place from 4th– 6th December 2023 in Brussels. The event was hosted by MEP Ivars Ijabs and organised by Quantum Internet Alliance, QuTech/Delft University of Technology and K4I Forum in the European Parliament. MEP Maria Da Graça Carvalho and EC Acting Director of DG CNECT.C Gustav Kalbe were also present to discuss with thought leaders and decision makers from other public entities, universities, startups and major industry players in the region.
Dr. Deirdre Kilbane, Director of Research Walton Institute and SFI CONNECT PI, leads the IrelandQCI project and chaired roundtable discussions under the themes ‘Towards EU leadership in building global quantum internet – what is required?’ and ‘Towards commercial quantum internet: from start-ups to scaling up to large scale deployment.’
Europe is now at the very forefront of this technological revolution, with several world first achievements such as the world’s first full stack network linking quantum computers. This remarkabled progress places Europe in a unique and strategic position to lead the next digital revolution.
This event provided an opportunity for prominent leaders in quantum internet development representing EU member states to come together and discuss the field of quantum internet technology, with hope to create a platform for collaborative discussion on advancing Europe’s technological leadership in this arena.
Ireland’s quantum programme
IrelandQCI is one of several projects across the European Union which sees the European Commission working with 27 Member States, as well as the European Space Agency – ESA, towards the deployment of a secure quantum communication infrastructure spanning the EU.
Jointly funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the EU, IrelandQCI will trial 16 quantum security technology scenarios with key stakeholders across Ireland’s public, industry and academic sectors over the next two years.
