The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has promoted a declaration supporting collaboration between Member States and the European Commission to create a European quantum ecosystem. The signatory states commit to cooperate to position Europe as a world leader in the field of quantum technologies.
A ‘Quantum Pact’ to drive quantum technologies in Europe has been presented at the Telecommunications Council held on December 5 in Brussels. This proposal came from the Spanish Government –which currently holds the Presidency-in-turn of the Council of the European Union (June-December 2023) – and (to date) has been endorsed by 11 Member States: France, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Malta, Estonia and Spain.
This declaration recognises the strategic importance of quantum technologies for the scientific and industrial competitiveness of the EU and aims to strengthen collaboration among Member States and with the Commission on the development of a world-class quantum technology ecosystem across Europe. The objective is to make Europe the ‘quantum valley’, the world's leading region for quantum research and innovation.
The Pact proposes to coordinate efforts so that European scientific excellence translates into innovations with a high economic and scientific impact, by promoting research in this field with both public and private funding, supporting start-ups and scale-ups, and encouraging large companies to invest in these technologies. It reinforces the commitment to jointly build EU infrastructures for quantum computing and simulation, secure communications, quantum sensing and quantum metrology. The need and importance of generating highly skilled professionals in these technologies to nurture the quantum technologies ecosystem is also mentioned.
Spain is already working to become one of the few countries with a National Quantum Technologies Strategy and it can count on Quantum Spain, a project funded by the Spanish Council of Ministers that aims to create the first infrastructure for quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) in the country, based on a public-private cooperation model.
ICN2’s research groups are at the forefront of the study of quantum materials and quantum technologies. ‘Our research at the ICN2 focuses on exploring the potential of topological quantum matter for new applications in quantum transduction, quantum communication and quantum computing,’ explains ICREA prof. Stephan Roche, leader of the Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience Group. 'ICN2 is taking active part in the Master in Quantum Science and Technology (Barcelona) and in the Catalan Quantum Academy, whose objectives are to enhance the training of young students and researchers, to foster collaboration and synergies in the Catalan ecosystem, and attract “Quantum talents” from the rest of the World'.