QEX: A European Quantum Excellence Centre to Drive Innovation and Applications

QEX will act as a one-stop shop for quantum computing applications and tools, empowering European scientific users, businesses, and industry to harness the power of quantum technologies.

Through specialised training programmes and tailored support, QEX will build a highly skilled quantum computing workforce across Europe while helping users adapt to and co-develop quantum applications, ensuring readiness for the next era of computing.

The QEX consortium brings together 11 partners representing a diverse network of scientific and technical expertise, from five different Member States of the European Union (EU).Coordinated by Stichting QuantumDeltaNL (Netherlands), key partners include Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Københavns Universitet and Syddansk Universitet (Denmark),Fundación Pública Gallega Centro Tecnológico de Supercomputación de Galicia, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and Universidade da Coruña (Spain), the University of Galway (ICHEC, Ireland) (Ireland), Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft – und Raumfahrt (Germany) and Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO) (Netherlands).

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The establishment of QEX builds on EuroHPC JU’s vision of creating a robust knowledge hub and thriving quantum ecosystem, securing Europe’s position as a global leader in quantum computing. 

The QEX Quantum Excellence Centre has been selected following the call HORIZON-EUROHPC-JU-2023-QEC-05-01 and is funded by the Horizon Europe programme, with a total EU contribution of around EUR 5 million.

Background

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 11 supercomputers, distributed across Europe, including JUPITER in Germany, Europe’s first exascale system, capable of performing over one billion billion calculations per second.

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 across Europe that offer free, customised support to SMEs and startups. Six new AI Factories were selected last month together with thirteen AI Factory Antennas, which will complement the existing AIF network. This step will strengthen European national AI ecosystems and expand access to AI-optimised supercomputing resources across Europe.

Additionally, the EuroHPC JU is deploying a  European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with existing supercomputers. EuroHPC JU already inaugurated PIAST-Q in Poznań, Poland and VLQ in Ostrava, Czechia,  marking a milestone in Europe’s leap into the quantum era. 

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.