QEst Hack invites Nordic and Baltic teams to test quantum algorithms on real business problems

[Sophie64]

Metrosert, Estonia's Applied Research Centre, is inviting people from the Nordic and Baltic countries to apply for QEst Hack 2026, according to The Quantum Insider. The quantum hackathon runs from 11 to 13 November in Tallinn, and applications close on 11 October. Participation is free and the working language is English. IBM, IQM and the Université de Sherbrooke are co-organisers, with support from Estonia's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

The format is practical. Five companies will present real business problems along with their own data, and teams of individuals, students and quantum experts from Estonia, Finland and Canada will test whether quantum algorithms can solve them better than existing methods. Possible problem areas include logistics, energy grid balancing, production planning, financial portfolios, material properties and drug discovery. That puts the emphasis on real use cases rather than toy problems

Kalev Kaarna, business development manager at Metrosert, said Estonia "must start building the necessary knowledge, experience and partnerships now" if it is not to fall behind neighbouring countries. The first QEst Hack in 2025 was won by energy company Enefit. Its head of AI systems, Kaarel Oja, said: "The hackathon prize enabled us to move from theoretical interest to practical experimentation." He added that it reduced the risk of trying something new

Estonia has a strong reputation for digital government and tech startups, so it is no surprise to see it trying to build quantum skills early. Small countries cannot fund national quantum computers on the scale of the UK or Germany, but they can build expertise and partnerships. Hackathons are a cheap and effective way to do that. It is a similar idea to the Moth Hack we discussed recently, but aimed at business problems rather than education

Do quantum hackathons produce anything useful, or are they mainly networking events? And would a UK equivalent with real business problems attract good teams?

QEst Hack Invites Participants to Test Quantum Algorithms on Real Business Problemsthequantuminsider.com

[Sandworm]

The value is in the networking and learning, not usually the algorithms. A team might discover that their problem is not a good fit for quantum, which is still a useful result. Saves money later

Negative results are underrated. Knowing what will not work is worth a lot

[TheGreatMoney]

Real data from real companies is what makes this different from most hackathons. Toy problems always look great on quantum hardware

Messy business data is a much tougher test. It also forces teams to compare against good classical baselines, since the companies already have working methods

[Cass93]

Estonia punches above its weight on anything digital. Skype, e-residency and digital ID all came out of a small country. Quantum skills fit that pattern. Tallinn also has a lot of software talent, which is what quantum algorithm work needs

[Christian_Cutter]

Enefit's quote is telling. Winning gave them permission internally to experiment. Big companies often need an external push like that before anyone will fund a project

[TealBear]

Drug discovery in a three day hackathon seems ambitious. Logistics and scheduling problems are probably the more realistic targets for a short event like this