Finnish researchers lead EUR 19 million EU quantum technology pilot

Qu-Pilot seeks to meet the growing demand for pilot fabrication services by European quantum technology companies, which currently require a faster path from lab to market with optimal technology and product development capabilities.

Upgrading Europe’s existing infrastructures offers companies a direct path to design, develop and validate their hardware and processes. This in turn will spur the commercialisation of quantum technologies.

Altogether, 24 member organisations are taking part in Qu-Pilot, including RTOs and private companies representing nine European countries. VTT has been assigned 3.8 million euros of the EU’s specific grant agreement (SGA) and is at the helm of the pilot.

“VTT is privileged to lead such a significant project, which will improve European competitiveness,” said VTT’s research manager Pekka Pursula. “This project is a natural continuation of the microelectronics and quantum technology development that VTT and Finland have done and achieved over the decades.”

Quantum technology research stretches back to the 1960s in Finland, when the Low Temperature Laboratory (nowadays located at Aalto University) was established in the city of Espoo. These days, companies such as Algorithmiq, Quanscient, Bluefors and IQM are at the forefront of the technology’s commercialisation, tapping its potential to revolutionise a swathe of sectors ranging from drug and vaccine development to cybersecurity.

As quantum technology is one of the key development areas of the European Union, Qu-Pilot fittingly contains representatives from Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Austria, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. The consortium’s quantum technology infrastructure development work will extend for the next three-and-a-half years. Following this, a second SGA with similar funding remains a possibility, pending the success of the current pilot.