An investment of €3 million has been announced to investigate technologies that will form the foundations of a quantum internet.
Experts at Queen’s University Belfast will play a key role in the CoQREATE (Convergent Quantum Research Alliance in Telecommunications) US-Ireland R&D Partnership, which has been allocated the funding boost.
The programme is a joint research and development partnership between the United States of America, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, spanning four large Research Centres and will fund at least ten research positions. It will be co-funded by the US National Science Foundation, Science Foundation Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy.
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Professor Mauro Paternostro, Head of the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queens University Belfast, comments: "CoQREATE will build the research framework for the development of crucial building blocks and infrastructures for a future quantum internet. I am delighted to be part of this major initiative, which will put Queen's University Belfast right at the centre of a groundbreaking effort to revolutionise the way we communicate and process information."
With the rapid development of quantum computers, there is a need to develop a quantum internet to provide connectivity between quantum computers over short and long distances. And quantum computers have the potential to perform many computing tasks faster than classical computers, in some cases solving problems that are impossible for classical computers to solve with today’s computing power.
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The CoQREATE project creates a unique multi-national collaborative environment that brings together expertise across the emerging quantum technologies and classical networking technologies.
Trevor Cooper, Director of Higher Education in the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy, which is co-funding the project commented: “The US-Ireland R&D Partnership is a highly valued element of the Department’s suite of research initiatives, allowing researchers in Northern Ireland to partner with counterparts in the Republic of Ireland and the United States to access the gold standard international peer review operated by the US National Science Foundation."
Source: Written from a press release
