Quantum computers, government strategy ready

The Italian strategy for the development of quantum computing is ready. The government, science, and industry have aligned on a visionary and concrete document that will serve to guide investment in the sector. This is a decisive step towards building an ecosystem capable of seizing one of the fundamental opportunities of the near future.

Quantum innovation is probably the next big wave. Different eras have followed one another under the banner of the mainframe, the personal computer, the internet, the smartphone, and artificial intelligence. The new frontier of computers is precisely that which exploits quantum physics. It is destined to generate a radical transformation because it does not work on the basis of bits but of qbits: it is not programmed by exploiting the two states of electronic circuits - on or off - but on all the possibilities in between. It therefore enables fast complex calculations with limited energy consumption. And today we know that this is not a futuristic hypothesis: it is a technology that is now abundantly proven to work. For businesses, it means starting to prepare.

The government has so far invested around EUR 227 million in knowledge development in the sector over three years. And it is preparing for the next phase. The Minister of Universities and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, has entrusted Tommaso Calarco, a professor at the University of Bologna and director of 'quantum control' at the Jülich research centre, with the task of leading the working group called upon to write the national strategy. Scientifically, on the instructions of the minister, the work was carried out in great autonomy. Operationally, it was carried out in collaboration with the Mur, the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Digital Transformation, and the National Cybersecurity Agency. The business ecosystem was analysed by the Quantum Computer Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano with Mimit.

The strategy calls for increased investment over the next three years and the creation of a national pole. The quantum computer ecosystem in Italy exists. It is not gigantic. But it can count on a research system of excellent quality, centred on the great skills present in the universities of Florence, Padua, Rome and Naples. Anitec Assinform has shown that companies are paying increasing attention to the subject. Eni and Tim are already at work. Some start-ups are active: QTI Quantum, of Florence, ThinkQuantum, of Padua, and others.

Certain technologies are further ahead. In quantum communication, single photons are sent to communicate messages that cannot be decrypted with maximum security. The technologies are maturing. For Calarco they will be ready in five years for industrialisation. In quantum sensing, important results are already being achieved in measuring the movement of magma underground, calculating the positions of objects in space, measuring state changes of neurons in the brain, and much more. Here too, the horizon for applications is five years. For the quantum computer, one will have to wait longer.