QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

Objectives

Work package 3 will carry out a number of supporting activities that are primarily directed towards dissemination and the spreading of excellence within the community and beyond. It will:

• Continuously maintain and update the web site and associated databases;
• Organize the bi-annual QIPC conference;
• Organize the bi-annual Young Investigator Award;
• Organize two QIPC schools;
• Organize outreach activities, like general publications, press releases;
• Overlook the Quantum Envoy activities.

Description of work and role of partners

Task 3.1 Maintenance of the web portal and existing databases (FU SAV, FBK)
A well functioning web portal is a main corner stone for the successful operation of the project, both as a tool for dissemination and visibility, and as a means for communication. The web site that has been set up by the predecessor CA QUIE2T is now a well-established portal under a widely recognized domain, QUTE-EUROPE will continue to maintain it at http://qurope.eu/. A dedicated domain http://qute-europe.eu/ will be registered that will point to the corresponding sub-domain of the qurope.eu site. The site is managed as a Content Management System (CMS) such that information can be easily added and edited by registered users of the site. This task will run for the whole lifetime of the project, as the web site is continually updated, with new tools and features to be added as a response to suggested or perceived community needs. The features that need to be continuously maintained are:

• News section and related services (mailing list)
• Databases: Jobs, Industries, Events, Groups, Agencies
• Project web sites with associated services (Intranet)
• On-line maintenance of the QIPC roadmap

The maintenance of existing databases, established by the predecessor programs QUROPE and QUIE2T, will ensure that no relevant data will be lost and that associated services will continue to be available. It will also enable a long-term view and evaluation of possible evolutions of available information and allow for an evaluation of possible trends by providing a larger basis for statistical data processing.

Task 3.2 Dissemination, Collaboration and Exploitation (IOTA, CHALMERS, FU SAV)
We aim to implement various dissemination measures in order to maximize the impact of the CA and to promote the QIPC concept at all possible levels (RTD and industrial communities and the general public. In particular, we plan to address the following audience:

• The academic and industrial RTD community
• End-user groups not directly involved in quantum-based R&D, to raise the awareness of quantum-based information technologies;
• General public and sciences writers.

The main points of activity in this task include:

• Register a web domain www.qute-europe.eu for the project.
• Create a quality logo for the project.
• Maintain and monitor the web portal for external representation and dissemination.
• Disseminate the results of other work packages. This will mainly be done via news tickers on the web site and through the QUROPE mailing list.
• Organize and coordinate possible exhibition stands at science and technology fairs. In particular participate in any upcoming FET conferences, but possibly also at other major IT events (e.g. CeBIT: http://www.cebit.de/).
• Issue some press releases focusing on FET projects and the local added value of the European funding.

Another task will be to continue the 'Quantum Envoy' activity that has been introduced and established by the predecessor program QUIE2T. The idea is to organize and support a 'travelling professor' to present general aspects of QIPC in public lectures and presentations. The targeted audience for such lectures is the general public or interested newcomers, i.e. explicitly non-academic and non-professional. The original scope of the Quantum Envoy activities was restricted to targeting the general public. In QUTE-EUROPE it is planned to widen that scope to also include other non-scientific audiences, in particular industrial and commercial stakeholders. Thus the Quantum Envoy will be an ‘Ambassador for the Quantum World’, approaching and connecting interested third-party audiences with the research community.

In practice it is planned that for each event travel costs and logistic support will be provided; other expenses like lodging etc. are expected to be taken over by local organizations. The budget for the Quantum Envoy activities is fixed at 10k€ for three years. The initial plan is to support at least one Quantum Envoy per year, but depending on remaining budget resources, additional events might be supported if the scope fits the general aims of the Quantum Envoy task. The event has to be located in Europe and specifically target an extra-scientific audience, in particular the general public or targeted industries.

To choose a particular event, the following selection procedure will be adopted:

• A call will be published on the CA web site and distributed via the usual dissemination channels, to search for potential Quantum Envoy events and participants;
• Each received proposal will be evaluated immediately upon reception by the work package leader and the coordinator. If the proposal satisfies the formal eligibility criteria, and if the budget resources permit, the QUTE-EUROPE Coordination Steering Committee will be charged to decide whether the event will be supported;
• If no proposals are received within a time-span of one year, the work package leader and the coordinator will organize one event where preferably (but not necessarily) one prominent representative of a project partner will act as the Quantum Envoy.

Such it will be ensured that there is at least one event per year while maintaining an open and transparent possibility to participate for everyone.

Task 3.3 Conference (IOTA, FU SAV)
This task will ensure that the highly successful series of bi-annual international QIPC conferences will be continued and therefore assure a continuous coverage of major QIPC events in Europe every two years. These international QIPC conferences have a long-standing tradition by now and are generally considered the yearly key event of the QIPC community in Europe. This status should be maintained and QUTE-EUROPE will contribute to the organization of one big conference that is scheduled during the running time of the project in 2015.

Support for the organization of the conference will include:

• A timely call for proposals to be published and disseminated
• The evaluation of received proposals
• Logistic support for the local organizers during the preparation of the event
• Collection of overview material during the event and assembly of a report

In order to ensure a fair and objective evaluation of the received proposals, the leader of this work package, together with the Project Coordinator, will first pre-evaluate the received proposals for formal correctness and then forward all eligible proposals to an external Advisory Board of Experts (ABE). The ABE’s recommendation has to be approved by the QUTE-EUROPE CSC by a simple majority vote. In case no majority can be reached, the vote of the Project Coordinator will be decisive.

The allocated budget for the conference is fixed at 70k€. It is expected that a major portion of the total conference budget will be covered by other sources. The QUTE-EUROPE contribution will be used to guarantee the interdisciplinary and independent character of the meeting, the coverage of extra-scientific topics that promote the objectives of the CA, and to ensure the highest possible quality standards. In particular, it will be used to support the following:

• 30k€ for invited speakers and organizers
• 20k€ for the venue
• 20k€ for local support of the organizers

It is assumed at the time of this writing that the conference will be organized by one of the QUTE-EUROPE legal partners. However, in order to comply with the rules of fair and open competitiveness, the final organizing institution will be chosen only during the running time of the project according to the rules specified above. Should the conference organization be awarded to an institute that is not a QUTE-EUROPE legal partner, it is planned to request an amendment to the contract to include this institution in the QUTE-EUROPE consortium. The exact procedure for this will be laid out in the risk management section of this contract. Since the final organizer of the conference is not known, the budget for the support of conferences will preliminarily rest with the coordinator. Once a local organizer has been chosen, this budget will be re-allocated to the local organizers of the conference.

Task 3.4 Young Investigator Award (IOTA, FU SAV)
The aim of this task is to provide some incentive and reward for excellent young researchers in the field of QIPC. The experience of the past years, in which the QIPC Young Investigator Award since its establishment by the predecessor program QUROPE, was awarded four times, has shown that there is a large number of highly promising, talented young scientists active in various disciplines of QIPC. The award, which consists of a lump sum of 4,000.00 € and a diploma, will be given to a researcher under the age of 35 for the best research recently published or presented at a major conference. It is intended to bring some public visibility and recognition of the high-quality research carried out by young scientists, and to provide further impetus for their careers.

The work for this task includes the timely publication of a call for nominations, the evaluation of nominations under fair and transparent criteria, and the organization of the award ceremony itself. The prize will prospectively be awarded at the major QIPC conference organized by this work package, in order to achieve the highest possible public visibility.

Just like the evaluation of proposals for conferences, the received nominations will first be screened by the work package leader and the Project Coordinator, and then be forwarded to the external Advisory Board of Experts to obtain an official recommendation. This recommendation has to be approved by the CSC by a simple majority vote. In case no majority can be reached, the vote by the Project Coordinator will be decisive.

Task 3.5 Schools (IOTA, FU SAV)
This task aims to shape and promote the next generation of QIPC researchers, fostering schools for young researchers and networks with special emphasis on cross-disciplinary exchange of young scientists. In particular it will strive to ensure the scientific and pedagogical excellence of the events, that the different subfields of QIPC are adequately covered, that an adequate support is provided to young scientists and that women have at least equal access to these activities.

There will be two schools organized within this task with management and selection procedures equivalent to the ones described for the QIPC conference (Task 3.3). There will be a public call for organization and a fair and transparent selection process. Also the same rules apply that are laid out in the Risk Management section concerning organizers that are not legal partners of the CA. The allocated budget for each school is fixed at 37k€. Eligible costs that can be covered by this amount include, but are not limited to, travel and accommodation of lecturers, lecturer honorarium, young scientist fellowships, editing and printing of proceedings, organisational and secretariat costs.

A special emphasis will be put on ensuring that young researchers and students from new member states can participate at the school. Finally, the lecture notes will be made freely available and disseminated, either via the QUROPE web portal, or the school’s own web page.

List of deliverables

Deliverable	Description	Month	Status
D3.1	1st year WP3 progress report	12
D3.2	2nd year WP3 progress report	24
D3.3	3rd year WP3 progress report	36

Schedule of relevant Milestones

Milestone	Description	Month	Status
MS2	1st QIPC conference with associated extra-scientific activities	32