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IrelandQCI Plenary 3, Tyndall National Institute, UCC

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IrelandQCI Plenary 3, Tyndall National Institute, UCC

On Friday 22nd November 2024, representatives of IrelandQCI consotium partners met for the third plenary of the project, this time at the stunning Lee Maltings building which houses Tyndall National Institute, UCC, in Cork city. The in-person meeting provided the opportunity for partners to come together to deliver work packge updates, discuss latest developments and forward plan for the next work package phases of the project.

Over 18 attendees traveled to Cork on a snowy November morning, and presented work package updates across the day. Partner organisations represented included Walton Institute at South East Technological Institute (SETU) in Waterford, Research Ireland’s CONNECT Centre, Trinity College Dublin, UCD, Tyndall National Institute (UCC), HEAnet, and Maynooth University, with others dialed in.

The on-site meeting allowed for tours of the fascinating Tyndall National Institute research laboratories during break periods. UCC’s Tyndall National Institute plays a vital role in the consortium of IrelandQCI partners. Tyndall is a leading European research centre in integrated ICT materials, devices and systems. It is one of Ireland’s five National Labs, specialising in both electronics and photonics. The Photonics Packaging and Systems Integration Group at Tyndall addresses challenges in photonic and microelectronic technologies, from fundamental research to the transition to pilot-scale manufacturing with its unique technical expertise across a wide range of advanced photonic and microelectronic packaging and integration technologies.

Plenary attendees had the opportunity to watch the experts at work, as a Tyndall researcher demonstrated a micro-optics 3D printer with submicron resolution from Vanguard Automation. This machine is being used to develop novel low-loss optical interconnect solutions for quantum applications, which is a core technical focus in the project. It is truly exciting that the IrelandQCI project is playing a leading role in Europe to develop and exploit novel and exciting quantum engineering technologies.

The Plenary

Other focuses of the agenda included:

  • The opportunity for Work Package Leads to present and discuss updates and actions that have taken place since Plenary 2, held in February 2024.
  • Key points of discussion at month 20 of the project included progress on the quantum network, quantum encryption, quantum coexistence, use case management, EuroQCI collaboration, education, training, and successful outreach events held across 2024.
  • An overview of communication and dissemination activities to date looked at the success of the 3 day QCI Ireland event held at the Camden Court Hotel in Dublin in July 2024, with a number of project metrics reached as a result.
  • A look forward at future activities as we approach 2025 included showcasing a sneak peek of the ‘Quantum & Answers Trailer’ which will be launched in Q1 in conjunction with The Year of Quantum; and will embark on a national roadshow to showcase IrelandQCI and promote quantum communication technologies to stakeholders at various events throughout the year.

With the establishment of the quantum network well underway across the existing classical backbone between Dublin, Waterford and Cork, exciting progress is being made across the project and partners look forward to achieving future milestones and deliverables in 2025.

IrelandQCI

IrelandQCI ‘Building a National Quantum Communication Infrastructure for Ireland’ incorporates integrating innovative and secure quantum devices and systems into conventional communication infrastructure. The project aim is establishing an infrastructure for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a method of communication based on sharing encryption keys using quantum physics in a manner that boosts security, which will be distributed over the existing classical network, creating a quantum communication network that will provide a huge increase to information security in Ireland.

Funding bodies

Co-funded by the European Commission, European Space Agency and the Irish Government’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, IrelandQCI is the €10 million Irish project within the EU-wide Quantum Communications Infrastructure (EuroQCI) programme.

IrelandQCI is one of several across the EU which sees the European Commission working with 27 Member States towards the deployment of a secure quantum communication infrastructure spanning the EU. This project has received funding from the European Union’s DIGITAL Europe Programme under grant agreement No. 101091520.

Consortium partners

Waterford’s Walton Institute, at South East Technological University (SETU), is leading the IrelandQCI project on behalf of CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications, with partners specialising in quantum technologies at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Cork (UCC)’s Tyndall National Institute, with support from University College Dublin (UCD) and Maynooth University (MU) and the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) at University of Galway. HEAnet and ESB Telecoms are also key partners in the project, as the quantum communications network is being built across the dark fibre optic network of ESB Telecoms parallel to the existing HEAnet backbone between Dublin, Waterford and Cork.

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