The EU Commission has updated us on the quantum tech ecosystem around Europe.
A report outlining the early performance of the EU's Quantum Technologies Flagship initiative, a €1 billion R&D spend launched in 2018, was publicised yesterday.
The data reveals European scientists filed hundreds of patents relating to quantum in the 2018 - 2021 period, which was considered the initial "ramp up" phase for Quantum Flagship's programming.
A total of 1313 scientific papers were published with a further 223 under review. Those 1,500 or so quantum scientists filed 105 patents to tee up commercialisation, with 64 of these currently active.
In the initial four-year period, the Commission poured €150 million into 24 research consortia, with support from 39 public research boards providing an additional €88.9 million under the QuantERA banner.
Those funds appear to have paid off driving Europe's bid to become a global quantum superpower — they helped to form 25 startups and spinouts in all areas of quantum tech, including computing, simulators, sensors and metrology.
Highlights of Quantum Flagship initiative include a quantum internet project that could one day allow any two points on Earth to be connected via quantum communication.
The project has built a network of three quantum nodes each separated by 1.3 km, helping to enable "end-to-end delivery of qubits."
EU support for quantum tech pioneers is in addition to funding committed by its member states. Germany has contributed €2 billion, France €1.8 billion, and the Netherlands €670 million.
Quantum observers can find out more by downloading the full publication.
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