Qu-Test brings together 13 service providers for a federated network of testbeds and 11 industrial users from the European quantum community. The network brings together competences and infrastructures across Europe to offer testing and validation services. A first goal of this cooperation is to support the creation of a trusted supply chain through the validation of quantum devices, chips, components and systems by the testbed network as an independent third party. A second goal is to discuss and agree on unified sets of parameters to characterize quantum devices. Methodologies and procedures will be harmonized among the partners of the testbed network in a step towards establishing standards for quantum technologies. Qu-Test is aligned along three testbeds: quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing. In more detail, the Quantum Computing Testbed will measure, characterise and validate cryogenic quantum devices, cryogenic qubits such as superconducting and semiconducting qubits, photonics qubits and ion traps. The Quantum Communication Testbed will characterize devices for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG) and provide design and prototyping services to support innovation in the supply chain of quantum communication technologies. Finally, the Quantum Sensing Testbed will benchmark sensing and metrology instruments provided by industry and use a large suite of quantum sensors (clocks, gravimeters, magnetometers, imagers) to validate industrial use cases aiming at generating new business cases for quantum sensing and metrology devices. With additional services of IPR support, business coaching and innovation management, Qu-Test supports the European quantum industry with a holistic one-stop-shop to move the full ecosystem forward.

Realizing an efficient, controllable interface between photons and atoms or atom-like emitters forms the basis for wide-ranging applications, such as quantum memories for light and nonlinear optics at the single-photon level. However, despite many spectacular demonstrations of quantum atom-light interactions, such interfaces still face two major bottlenecks. First, the error bounds for most protocols scale unfavorably with system resources. Second, it is extremely difficult to improve these figures of merit in conventional systems. Within this context, DAALI will pursue new, disruptive platforms and protocols, which offer novel solutions to boost important system parameters and/or reduce the resources needed for applications. In particular, we will: • Develop state-of-the-art interfaces between atomic media and nano/micro-photonic systems. Such systems offer excellent potential for scalability and large atom-photon coupling strengths. Moreover, the flexibility to engineer their spatial modes and dispersion enables new, powerful paradigms that have no obvious analogue in macroscopic interfaces. • Demonstrate novel protocols for quantum memories and photon-photon gates. These protocols will take advantage of novel mechanisms such as those found in nanophotonic interfaces, “selective radiance,” and strong atom-atom interactions. These novel effects can even enable error rates that scale exponentially better as a function of physical resources than previously known bounds. DAALI brings together partners with theoretical and experimental expertise in atomic physics, quantum optics, and photonics, who will work together to solve the multi-disciplinary challenges needed to design and construct real systems that can maximally utilize and exploit these disparate concepts. Our results have the potential to completely re-define the technological possibilities of light-matter interfaces.

Optical clocks are amazingly stable frequency standards, which would remain accurate to within one second over the age of the universe. Bringing these clocks from the lab to the market offers great opportunities for telecommunications, navigation, sensing, and science, but no commercial optical clock exists. Europe's world leading optical clock technology within academia and national metrology institutes combined with its strong photonics industry, provide us with a golden opportunity to take a leading position in this strategic technology. With AQuRA we want to seize this opportunity and build up a sovereign, efficient industrial capability able to build the world’s most advanced quantum clocks. We will deliver the first industry-built, rugged and transportable optical clock with an accuracy that approaches the best laboratory clocks. Our work is based on the experience that many of us gained by building an optical clock with industry during the Quantum Flagship project iqClock (2018-2022). In AQuRA industry takes the lead and will deliver a 20x more accurate clock in a 3x smaller volume at TRL 7. This will be possible by combining our industry partners’ experience in rugged photonics products with the know-how of our world-leading academic and national metrology institute partners. We will build, strengthen and diversify the European supply chain of optical clock components, filling critical gaps in the supply chain, and thereby establish a sovereign, competitive industry for optical clocks. In particular we will develop the rugged laser sources, miniaturized optical interface circuits, and the atom source needed for an optical clock, all of which will also become products on their own. Partner Menlo Systems will integrate these components with their ultrastable laser system into the AQuRA optical clock. We will accelerate market uptake by demonstrating our clock's usefulness to applications in telecom, geodesy and metrology, and by engaging with end users.

The Internet has had a revolutionary impact on our world. The vision of a Quantum Internet is to provide fundamentally new Internet technology by enabling quantum communication between any two points on earth. In synergy with the ‘classical’ Internet that we have today, a Quantum Internet will connect quantum processors to achieve unparalleled capabilities that are provably impossible using classical communication. The mission of the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA) is to build a global Quantum Internet made in Europe – by developing a full-stack prototype network, and by driving an innovative European Quantum Internet ecosystem capable of scaling the network to world-leading European technology. Building on its proven track record in teamwork, which has already resulted in world first Quantum Internet technology, QIA advances this mission in two complementary objectives: The first is the realization of a full-stack prototype network able to distribute entanglement between two metropolitan-scale networks via a long-distance backbone (>500 km) using quantum repeaters. The second is the establishment of a European platform for Quantum Internet development, which will act as a catalyst for a European Quantum Internet Ecosystem including actors all along the value chain. QIA’s network will enable advanced quantum-network applications and prepare the ground for secure quantum computing in the cloud, thanks to our new generation of end nodes including both processing nodes and low-cost photonic client devices. Nodes in the metropolitan network will be interconnected via hubs that allow the scalable connection of hundreds of end nodes, paving the way for early adopters. The long-distance backbone will be realized using fully functional quantum repeaters unlocking Pan-European end-to-end quantum communication. QIA’s prototype network will operate on standard optical fibers and serves to validate all key sub-systems, ready to be scaled by European industry.

Gravimetry aims at unveiling the density structure of the undergrounds by measuring subtle changes of the local gravity acceleration. The first-generation of quantum gravity sensors (QGs) has received a strong interest from many customers, and the market is still growing. But the commercial potential and the positive-impact of the technology are not yet fully exploited because of several limitations such as transportability, robustness, user-friendless or high operation costs. To overcome the barriers that limit the operational utilization of field gravimetry and develop the solutions that will allow us to fully address the exploitable market, we propose to conduct in FIQUgS the development of several innovations, either at the technological level with improved QGs built upon a reliable and efficient supply chain, or in terms of operational methodology. The development of a next generation QGs product line, and the services associated for the conduction of field surveys, data acquisition and data inversion will allow to considerably develop our capability to address the market of advanced geophysics. The unique industrial and technological capabilities that will result from FIQUgS will positively contribute to several important societal objectives, especially the European Green Deal: - the new field QGs will allow for a reduction of the environmental impact associated to mining activities thanks to a reduction of drilling operations, and civil engineering where it will contribute to more efficient and resilient constructions. - they will contribute to an improved utilization of geothermal energies through the development of non-invasive monitoring capabilities of the energy reservoir. - they will be involved in CO2 storage operations and will contribute to the fight against global warming thanks to these advanced monitoring capabilities. FIQUgS will also have an impact in quantum technologies markets, such as high-performance navigation or advanced photonics.