Eclipse Qrisp wins the Quantum Effects Award 2026 for quantum programming

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Eclipse Qrisp, an open source, high level quantum programming framework started by Fraunhofer FOKUS, has won the Quantum Effects Award 2026 for Quantum Computing Software and Algorithms, according to an Eclipse Foundation release. The award was presented at the Quantum Effects trade fair and conference in Stuttgart. An international jury judged entries on innovation, application potential, feasibility and collaboration between research and industry

Qrisp is built on Python and lets developers write quantum algorithms using familiar ideas like variables, functions and control flow, which it then compiles into optimised quantum circuits. It has typed quantum variables and automatic memory management, supports hybrid computing through JAX and is being integrated with Nvidia's CUDA-Q. In plain terms, it tries to make programming a quantum computer feel more like normal programming

Michael Plagge of the Eclipse Foundation said: "Eclipse Qrisp raises the level of abstraction, enabling developers to focus on the algorithm." He added that the award is "tremendous recognition for Fraunhofer FOKUS and the Eclipse Qrisp community." The first Eclipse Qrisp Community Day is on 29 October at Fraunhofer FOKUS in Berlin. The framework also contributes to a Horizon Europe project called SecQDevOps

Most quantum programming today still works close to the level of individual gates, a bit like writing assembly language in the early days of classical computing. Higher level languages could open quantum programming to many more developers. There are several competing approaches, including IBM's Qiskit, Google's Cirq and Microsoft's Q#. Qrisp's open source, vendor neutral approach is a good fit for European efforts to avoid dependence on any single company

Do quantum computers need easier programming languages to take off? And which quantum programming tool would you recommend to a beginner?

Eclipse Qrisp Wins Quantum Effects Award 2026 For Advancing Quantum Software Developmentwww.globenewswire.com