QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

3.2 QIPC RESEARCH IN EUROPE - EUROPEAN UNION LEVEL

Research in Quantum Information Processing and Communication (QIPC) has a high risk nature and long-term outlook which is very much in scope of information and communication technologies (ICT). The “Future and Emerging Technologies” programme (FET) being part of the ICT research theme of European Commission has as early as in the mid 90’s recognized the potential of QIPC. From the very beginning FET has been successful in attracting the best research teams in Europe to its collaborative programme, more recently including also excellent teams in USA, Australia and Asia. It is fair to say that the pathfinder role of FET has been crucial for the development of the QIPC research domain in Europe.

In the late 80's and early 90's quantum phenomena were studied by projects funded by the EC in the field of optoelectronics and electronics with the aim to overcome the limitations to the respective state-of-the-art devices. In the Fourth Framework Programme (FP4, 1995 – 1998) this research gradually evolved towards the objective of “quantum information processing”. The focus was on the demonstration of quantum entanglement with photons, which was technologically more mature. In the mid 90's, important results were achieved by several groups in Europe and shortly after they became the driving force behind a number of FET projects.

During 1998 the QCEPP working group (the so-called Pathfinder Project) laid the bases for the research field of QIPC at European level and was the first endeavour explicitly addressing this area of research. This working group produced an extensive report with a roadmap, a map of European research teams with relevant competencies and set the research agenda for several years ahead. It played a crucial role by organizing the research community, by stimulating it to reach critical mass within a short time period and by building the support for the launch of QIPC as a Proactive Initiative.

The proactive initiative QIPC and its successors

In FP5 (1999–2002) FET launched QIPC as a Proactive Initiative (PI). It was implemented via „calls for proposals" directly targeted to QIPC and a certain amount of the FET budget was reserved in advance. There were two calls for proposals and 25 projects were launched with total cost of 41 M€ and EU funding of 31 M€. The contracts of the last group of FP5 projects finished at the end of 2005. Integrating the projects arising from the Open scheme with those supported through the proactive initiative and coordinate the work of all these projects was a main priority of the proactive initiative in FP5. Important traditions were also established at that time. Each year since the beginning of the proactive initiative two major events have been organized. The first one is a „cluster review and conference". Its goals are to evaluate the work of each project and how its objectives fit within the cluster, to revise priorities if necessary and to evaluate the progress of the cluster as a whole. The second event is the annual European QIPC workshop where projects present their work. Both forums give the opportunity for interactions between the members of the projects and for cross-fertilization.

In FP6 (2003–2006) QIPC continued as a FET PI. There was one call for Integrated Projects (IP) in September 2004. Three Integrated Projects succeeded in the evaluations and started in November 2005 with a contract for four years and total EU funding of 25 M€:

• SCALA – Scalable Quantum Computing with Light and Atoms (9.4 M€) with a focus on the realization of a scalable quantum computer, by using individually controlled atoms, ions and photons;
• QAP – Qubit Applications (9.9 M€) with a focus on qubit applications that are based on photonic, atomic and solid state systems;
• EuroSQIP – European Superconducting Quantum Information Processor" (6M€): with a focus on developing a 3-5-qubit quantum information processor on platforms based on Josephson junction technology.

In FP7 (2007-2013) the proactive initiave took on the new name “Quantum Information Foundations and Technologies” (QI-FT) and organized a call for proposals in 2009. Besides the ongoing objective to exploit the quantum nature of information for new ways of computing and communication, projects should also develop entanglement-enabled quantum technologies with a general potential for application in ICT. Three projects started in February 2010 with a total EU funding of 15 million Euros. Remarkably, also research groups from outside Europe were attracted by these projects coming from the US, Australia and Singapore.

• AQUTE (5.3 M€) strives to realise an atomic, molecular and optical (AMO)-based quantum-information processor involving up to 10 qubits and capable to simulate quantum systems, to develop novel hybrid quantum systems, and to explore novel theoretical concepts, such as dissipative quantum computation.
• Q-ESSENCE (4.7 M€) pursues the hybridization of quantum information media with a focus on making networks, long-distance entanglement, applications, and verification. These outcomes will be reached through the underpinning science and enabling technologies such as light-matter interfaces providing faithful interconversion between different physical realizations of qubits or quantum information concepts that solve problems of limited trust and privacy intrusion.
• SOLID(5.0 M€) is to develop small solid-state hybrid systems on common platforms based on microwave and optical nano-photonic cavities for the purpose of performing elementary quantum information processing tasks. Various types of solid-state qubits will be connected to these "hubs": Josephson junction circuits, quantum dots and NV centres in diamond. Focus is on design, fabrication, characterization, combination, and operation of quantum-coherent hybrid registers involving 3-9 qubits.

QIPC in the FET OPEN scheme

Also in FP7 a significant number of FET OPEN projects have been working on QIPC topics with a total funding of about 30 M€ (status February 2010). These are

• COMPAS - Computing with mesoscopic photonic and atomic states;
• COQUIT - Collective quantum operations for information technologies;
• CORNER - Correlated noise effects in quantum information processing;
• GEOMDISS - Geometric phases, pumping, and dissipation in quantum devices;
• HIDEAS - High Dimensional Entangled Systems;
• HIP - Hybrid Information Processing;
• MIDAS - Macroscopic interference devices for atomic and solid-state systems: quantum control of super-currents;
• MINOS - Micro- and nano-optomechanical systems for ICT and QIPC;
• MOLSPINQIP - Molecular spin Clusters for Quantum Information Processes;
• NAME-QUAM - Nanodesigning of atomic and molecular quantum matter;
• PICC - Physics of Ion Coulomb Crystals;
• QUANTIP - Quantum integrated photonics;
• QUEVADIS - Quantum engineering via dissipation.