EU gives the Quantum Internet Alliance €47.5m to build a full stack quantum internet prototype

[Darren_20]

The European Commission is giving €47.5 million to the Quantum Internet Alliance to build a full stack quantum internet prototype, Quantum Zeitgeist reports. The money comes through a Specific Grant Agreement. The new phase lasts 42 months and follows earlier work that ran from October 2022 to March 2026. More than 50 institutions in 12 EU member states are involved, led by QIA director Stephanie Wehner

The technical goal is ambitious. QIA wants to connect two metropolitan scale quantum networks over long distance fibre using quantum repeaters. The prototype is meant to be fully programmable and able to run real quantum network applications. Repeaters are the hard part, because quantum signals cannot simply be amplified like ordinary internet traffic

There is more to it than hardware. The programme will set up pilot facilities and open access infrastructure for researchers, developers and startups. It will also prioritise real use cases and encourage cooperation among the various European quantum internet projects. That should help stop different countries from duplicating effort

Wehner said that over the past years the alliance has developed the core building blocks of a quantum internet. She said the mission now is to integrate those components into a full stack prototype. She also said QIA's startups can now move on to proof of concept use cases, which she framed as important for European competitiveness. This is a separate effort from the Innsbruck prototype we discussed recently, although the goals overlap

I like that Europe is funding this as a joint project rather than leaving each country to go it alone. Delft, where Wehner is based, has led a lot of the key experiments in quantum networking. The challenge will be turning lab links into something reliable enough to run applications over real city fibre. Forty two months is not long for that kind of jump

What would you use a quantum internet for? And is €47.5m enough to make a real difference?

Quantum Internet Alliance To Build Full-stack Quantum Networksquantumzeitgeist.com

[John]

€47.5m spread over 50 institutions is not a huge amount each. It will pay for people and some equipment, but not massive infrastructure. The real value is coordination

Getting everyone pointing in the same direction matters. Compare it with what the US and China are spending and it looks modest

[George94]

Forty two months goes quickly. Big European projects often end with a good report and a demo rather than something usable

I hope this one breaks the pattern. The ambition is right, at least. Deadlines do focus minds, though

[Christian_Cutter]

Open access infrastructure is the part I would watch. Startups need somewhere to test their ideas without building their own networks. A shared testbed could spark a lot of new companies. That is how the classical internet grew too. Shared facilities lower the barrier for small teams enormously