QuantERA Call 2023

Innovate UK will contribute a total of £2M to support UK businesses to participate.

EPSRC will contribute a total of £2M to support researchers based in UK Higher Education Institutions or eligible research organisations.

QuantERA II ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies (QT) is a consortium of national and regional Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) in Europe supporting research in QT. The funding organisations of QuantERA II jointly support European multilateral research projects with the potential to initiate or foster new lines of QT through collaborations exploring advanced multidisciplinary science and/or cutting-edge engineering.

Call 2023 Topics for UKRI applicants:

Applied Quantum Science (AQS)

(There is also a Quantum Phenomena and Resources (QPR) topic but UKRI is not allowing submissions in this theme)

Call budget: €33 M

Eligibility

International consortium

The project consortia must have a minimum of 3 eligible partners requesting funding in at least 3 of the following countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada (Québec), Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, United Kingdom

Standard consortium size: Three to six partners. Each partner of the project consortium must fulfil the conditions of the Research Funding Organisation (RFO) from their respective country.

Duration: 24 or 36 months

Project size for UK applicants: Up to £250k per partner, up to £400k per project (please see the QuantERA call documentation for specific rules regarding EPSRC and Innovate UK funding guidelines)

Prior to applying, UK applicants should contact:
Joseph.Westwood@epsrc.ukri.org
Chris.Jones@iuk.ukri.org
Sam.Johnson@iuk.ukri.org

Scope

The submitted proposals are expected to be aligned with one of the two QuantERA Call 2023 topics:

Applied Quantum Science (AQS)

where the goal is to take known quantum effects and established concepts from quantum science, translate them into technological applications and develop new products. These could be novel devices that are based on known quantum effects and that will serve a novel application in QT, or devices and systems that translate known quantum applications into products and industrial applications.

Specific themes

Funded projects in both topics are expected to address one or more of the following areas:

1. Quantum communication: Methods/tools/materials/strategies to deal with the issues of distance, reliability, efficiency, robustness and security in quantum communication; novel protocols for multipartite quantum communication and quantum cryptography; quantum memory and quantum repeater concepts. Novel photonic sources for quantum information and quantum communication, coherent transduction of quantum states between different physical systems; integrated quantum photonics; quantum communication embedded in optical telecommunications systems; other communication protocols with functionality enhanced by quantum effects. Methods for quantum communications in space, between satellites and Earth.

2. Quantum simulation: Platforms and materials for quantum simulation; development of new measurement and control techniques and of strategies for the verification of quantum simulations. Application of quantum simulations to condensed matter, chemistry, thermodynamics, biology, high energy physics, quantum field theories, quantum gravity, cosmology and other fields.

3. Quantum computation: Development of noisy intermediate-scale quantum platforms; devices to realise multi-qubit algorithms; demonstration and optimisation of error correction codes; progress towards fault-tolerance; interfaces between quantum computers and communication systems. Development of novel quantum algorithms and software stacks; demonstration of quantum speed-up; new architectures and programming paradigms for quantum computation, including hybrid approaches.

4. Quantum information sciences: UKRI is not allowing submissions on this theme.

5. Quantum metrology sensing and imaging: Use of quantum properties for time and frequency standards (including precise frequency distribution), light-based calibration and measurement, gravimetry, magnetometry, accelerometry, and other applications. Development of detection schemes that are optimised with respect to extracting relevant information from physical systems; novel solutions for quantum imaging and ranging. Implementation of micro- and nano-quantum sensors, for instance for quantum limited sensitivity in the measurement of magnetic fields at the nanoscale. Extension of the reach of quantum sensing and metrology to other fields of science including e.g. the prospects of offering new medical diagnostic tools.

Briefing and support

An online webinar was hosted by the QuantERA Coordinator and the Call Secretariat on March 2^nd 2023, 14:00 CET., aiming to answer the questions related to the call. Watch the recording below.

For additional queries, contact the UK National Contact Points for QuantERA:
Joseph.Westwood@epsrc.ukri.org
Chris.Jones@iuk.ukri.org
Sam.Johnson@iuk.ukri.org