New investment linked to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), one of the most important scientific infrastructures in the country. This research center located on the UPC campus in Barcelona will be responsible for coordinating the Quantum Spain project, which includes the construction and installation of the first quantum computer based on European technology.
The strategic objective of Quantum Spain, approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, is to create a quantum computing ecosystem in Spain, with an initial investment of 22 million euros. The initiative involves 25 universities and infrastructure and supercomputing centers from 14 autonomous communities and its management will be carried out by the BSC-CNS, as the main node of the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES). The project coordinator will be Dr. Alba Cervera, a quantum computing researcher at the BSC-CNS.
The project foresees the construction of a quantum computer, which will be installed at the BSC-CNS headquarters and will progressively be equipped with chips of different generations and numbers of qubits (basic unit of quantum computing). In addition to building the computer, the development of useful quantum algorithms applicable to real user problems and the creation of a remote cloud access system to allow industry and the public sector to experiment with new quantum algorithms are planned.
The forecast is that the computer will have a first chip of two qubits operational by the end of 2022 and will progressively incorporate new versions of chips until reaching 20 qubits in 2025. "The goal of Quantum Spain is not to compete with other quantum computers in number of qubits. We want quality before quantity. This is a realistic project, which aims to have a powerful quantum computer, but not at the cost of sacrificing the quantum properties that make it special. The goal is to have a functional and quality device, that is useful and can be used to solve real problems in the near future. We want it to serve for Spain to develop its own algorithms, to promote its transversal use, both for research and for companies, and to train future users of this technology," explains the BSC-CNS.
Quantum computing has potential applications in artificial intelligence, quantum chemistry, finance, optimization of production chain processes, cryptography, cybersecurity, logistics, and in many problems that require intense computational needs. Currently, it is one of the areas of research and development on which the most intense international race is taking place and different countries have already announced plans to obtain computers based on quantum technologies.