EU Project Aims to Make Quantum Tech Mainstream; Hannes Huebel at Austrian Institute of Tech Discusses Path Forward

(BCS.org) In 2016, the European Union announced an ambitious research agenda for advancing developments in the newly emerged field of Quantum Technologies. In this interview, Hannes Huebel, Senior Scientist in the Security & Communications Technologies unit, at the Austrian Institute of Technology, describes quantum technologies and the effort to bring three decades of quantum research out of the lab and into mainstream commercial applications.
Titled The European Quantum Technologies Flagship, the initiative focuses on four main areas, or pillars:
Quantum computing;
Quantum simulation;
Quantum communication;
Quantum metrology and sensing.
The €1bn QT Flagship initiative, will span 10 years (started 2018) will support over 20 cutting edge projects and will bring together the collective knowledge of 5,000+ scientists across 17 EU member states. Together, the UK and their European neighbours will make a whole spectrum of quantum technology better, faster, more secure, scalable and saleable.
Huebek says in the first step to market ” . there will be quantum computer centres. This is because quantum computers, in the beginning, will be very costly and very big – so there will probably be just a few in each country at central points. ‘Using quantum communication, it will be possible to link to the computers, run any programme you want to run and get the results back without having the need for anybody third parties; you will have the results – not the quantum computer. This is called blind computing.’
Huebel discusses the quantum internet: ‘Moving to a quantum communication network will probably start with an already trusted and government contracted big military supplier who will begin to build those systems.’