$31.9m to explore quantum systems

The University of Queensland is set to lead a national centre developing advanced quantum technologies, with today’s announcement of $31.9 million funding for the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.

UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robyn Ward said the Centre would have five Australian nodes and 18 partner organisations both domestic and international.

“UQ has a long history of leading the field in terms of quantum research and is the home of Australia’s first laboratories in both quantum photonics and quantum optomechanics,” she said.

“This new Centre will build on the impressive work of the first ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems which produced small-scale quantum systems for technological applications.

“Under the leadership of Centre Director Professor Andrew White, researchers will move beyond the lab towards practical prototypes and commercial applications, including material simulators, diagnostic technologies and geo-survey tools.”

“This Centre gives us the opportunity to create the designer quantum materials, quantum engines, and quantum imaging systems at the heart of these machines,” he said.

University of Sydney Professor Andrew Doherty will be the Centre’s Deputy-Director.

“We’re very excited by the fact that we will be training in Australia a new generation of scientists in cutting-edge fundamental research, innovation, and entrepreneurialism,” he said.

The Centre’s international partners will include Europe’s largest fundamental science agency, the French National Center for Scientific Research, which helped establish France’s new Université Paris-Saclay, of which UQ is a partner.

UQ researchers are also involved in two other centres which received funding: the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, led by the University of New South Wales, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, led by Monash University.

Media: Professor Andrew White, andrew.white@uq.edu.au, 0466 256 329; UQ Communications, communications@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 3439.