Finnish research institutions join forces on quantum science

The three research institutions will pool their expertise and resources in research, education and innovation to support research efforts in the rapidly emerging field of physics and engineering.

“Our goals are threefold,” saidJukka Pekola, professor at Aalto University. “Firstly, to coordinate our national research efforts; secondly, to provide the best possible education, both in graduate and industrial programmes; and thirdly, in driving innovation.”

“We want the institute to guide the development of current infrastructure and have a role in generating new pathways and projects for quantum technologies. We are looking forward to growing the institute to include more partners, collaborators and stakeholders from across research and industry in Finland.”

Pooling the resources and extensive experience of the institutions is key particularly because the level of expertise in the labour force has been identified as a bottleneck for the development of quantum technology, added Sabrina Maniscalco, professor at the University of Helsinki. “By combining and coordinating our resources, we will be able to grow expertise in new directions.”

Finland has already made notable strides in perhaps the most widely known sub-domain of quantum science, quantum computing, developing the hardware, software and communication solutions required to bring the next generation of computers from laboratories into the real world. VTT and IQM, for example, have partnered to build a 50-qubit quantum computer by 2024.

“Finnish companies are already working in this area, both as technology enablers providing the hardware and software to exploit quantum phenomena and as end users providing services that use quantum technology to customers,” stated Himadri Majumdar of VTT.

“At InstituteQ, we want to work with both.”