The inauguration ceremony was hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) -Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) and attended by María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA) of the Government of Spain; Núria Montserrat, Minister of the Department of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia; Juan Cruz Cigudosa, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain, Óscar Díez, Head of the Quantum Computing at the European Commission and Daniel Opalka, Head of Unit, Research and Innovation of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.
Hosted and operated by BSC in Barcelona and supplied by Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, and Do IT Now, EuroQCS Spain is an analogue quantum computer, which allows implementing quantum annealing routines. The first-generation system will offer 10 physical qubits, with planned upgrades expected to significantly enhance both coherence times and the number of data qubits.
EuroQCS-Spain will be integrated into MareNostrum 5, one of Europe’s world-class EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputer, enabling a hybrid classical–quantum architecture accessible to European researchers, industry, and public users.
The first-generation system is currently undergoing its final calibration at BSC, and end-user onboarding is expected very shortly.
More details
Quantum annealing is effective in solving certain types of optimisation problems. The method is based on the concept of adiabatic evolution, where a system slowly evolves from an initial- into a final state. The final state is designed in such a way that it represents the optimal solution of the optimisation problem, the so-called global optimum. Quantum annealing has been shown to be particularly effective for solving problems with a large number of local optima.
Quantum annealers can be used in various fields, molecular modelling physical phenomena problems, finance, logistics optimisation challenges, as well and Quantum Machine Learning and AI model training.
Owned by the EuroHPC JU, EuroQCS-Spain is co-funded with a total acquisition cost of EUR 8.5 million. The EuroHPC JU will fund 50% of the costs and the remaining 50% will be funded by the Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service complemented with a contribution from Portugal. The system is expected to be in operation for three years.
To date, the EuroHPC JU has procured six quantum computers, located across Europe. Four of these systems have already been inaugurated since last year:
- PIAST-Q in Poznań, Poland in June 2025,
- VLQ in Ostrava, Czechia in October 2025,
- Euro-Q-Exa in Munich, Germany in February 2026,
- Lucy near Paris, France in April 2026.
The deployment of these quantum computers across Europe aims to offer the widest possible variety of European quantum computing platforms and hybrid classical-quantum architectures, including analogue quantum simulators based on neutral atoms, trapped ions, superconducting circuits, and photonics to adiabatic systems, enabling the execution of annealing routines. This approach positions Europe at the forefront of this emerging field while providing European end-users with access to diverse and complementary quantum technologies.
In addition to these six systems, two analogue quantum simulators, Jade and Ruby, have been procured under the EuroHPC JU project HPCQS and inaugurated end of 2025 in Germany (Julich Supercomputing Centre, JSC) and France (GENCI).
Procurement processes are also currently ongoing for additional EuroHPC quantum computers to be hosted and operated by SURF in the Netherlands and by LuxProvide in Luxembourg.
About EuroHPC JU
The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.
To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 12 supercomputers, distributed across Europe including JUPITER in Germany, and Alice Recoque, Europe’s first exascale systems.
European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls no matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.
Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 19 AI factories (AIF) across Europe, complemented by 13 AI Factory Antennas, to offer free, customised support to SMEs and startups.
The EuroHPC JU also funds research and innovation projects to develop a full European supercomputing supply chain, from processors and software to applications to be run on these supercomputers and know-how to develop strong European HPC expertise.
With the recent adoption of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150, the EuroHPC JU’s mandate has been expanded with new action pillars dedicated to the deployment of AI Gigafactories across Europe and the advancement of quantum technologies.
About Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación
BSC is one of the leading supercomputing centres in Europe and hosts one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, MareNostrum 5. It specialises in HPC and has a dual mission: to provide supercomputing infrastructure and services to the Spanish and European scientific communities, and to generate knowledge and technology for transfer to society.
The BSC consortium is made up of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain (60%), the Department of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia (30%) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (10%). The centre manages the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) and is one of the hosting entities of the EuroHPC JU, the European initiative leading large-scale investment and deployment of HPC in Europe.
About Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech
Qilimanjaro is a full-stack quantum computing company based in Barcelona and founded in 2019 to maximise current technology capabilities to provide a practical quantum advantage in a shorter time frame by following a unique strategy.
Qilimanjaro uses the analog model of quantum computation, with high-quality superconducting flux qubits and versatile qubit-qubit interactions to build app-specific quantum devices (QASIC), in a co-design approach that brings the design of the quantum chip closer to the use-case.
Qilimanjaro offers an exclusive Quantum as a Service that allows for remote access to our distinctive quantum computing platforms and a boutique service for deployment and integration of on-premise quantum computers for HPC centers and clients’ facilities, as well as consultancy services for the tailored development of quantum algorithms.
About Do IT Now
The Do IT Now Group has been founded to deliver a higher level of High-Performance Computing services. Do It Now is a market leader and shares a passion and enthusiasm for facing new challenges of HPC technologies together. Do IT Now deals with the complexity of HPC providing simple solutions to scientists and engineers.
The added value of Do it Now is to offer a deep understanding of the most advanced technologies in HPC, along with high-quality customer and user support. They offer solutions for different IT sectors like quantum computing, Big Data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing or storage.
Details
- Publication date
- 28 May 2026
- Author
- European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking