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I just attended the "Quantum Europe" conference in Amsterdam, where the manifesto was announced and where the details were worked out. While the manifesto is s

I just attended the "Quantum Europe" conference in Amsterdam, where the manifesto was announced and where the details were worked out. While the manifesto is surely geared towards a specific audience (politicians) and contains a lot of buzzwords, the flagship project is very well thought out and supported by some of the largest research institutions inside and outside of Europe (e.g. including Intel, who invested 50 million in the QuTech centre in Delft). The author tries to convey the impression that the manifesto and flagship project are the result of some undemocratic and misguided funding process, while in fact they are the result of many years of work putting together a proposal for this kind of project. This effort, which was mainly done by the scientific community, dates back to 2009 and earlier and has been a fully transparent and community-led effort. The ideas behind the flagship project are very sound as well (in my opinion): Get different research groups in Europe to collaborate and share resources, provide a level of funding that allows those researchers to compete with e.g the US / Canada / Australia (which are all investing similar amounts) and get the industry involved to commercialize technologies where possible. Also, qantum computing is only one of several flagship projects that have been selected for funding, the Human Brain project being another one. All in all this kind of funding scheme in which scientists rather than politicians play a leading role are highly welcome in my opinion, and I would like to see this model copied around the world. Concerning the potential overselling of quantum technologies: The limitations and uncertainties of this research were discussed very openly at the conference, and many speakers explicitly warned against promising too much to the public. All in all I think all actors are aware of the fact that quantum computing / cryptography won't solve all their problems, but they still believe that these technologies might have a deep impact on the European and world economy in the next 20 years. More background information on the FET flagships within the Horizon 2020 programme: projects:http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/fet-flagships http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/...

nabla9 10y ago
Why is this money taken from "European Cloud Initiative"? It has nothing to do with it. Is the comission aware of this fact? Are all those research institutions standing behind claimed security impact of their work? Were security experts and cryptographers involved, or is this just wild speculation from physicists as DJB's Theory 2 assumes. I'm all for moving more EU money to basic research, but money can be moved to the direction I want with wrong promises.
- ThePhysicist 10y ago
  Honestly this is the first time that I hear this claim, and I cannot judge whether it is true or not (I will try to find out). What I know is that the money for the flagship projects was allocated around five years ago already (within the Horizon 2020 programme), and I am not aware of any relation to the European Cloud Initiative. The only mention of cloud computing at the conference was in the context of providing Quantum Computing capabilities over the cloud as a means to make these technologies accessible to a wider audience as soon as possible, as buying a quantum computer will probably be beyond the capabilities of most individuals / organizations for the foreseeable future.
  - nabla9 10y ago
    €2 billion in Horizon 2020 funding will be allocated to the European Cloud Initiative[1]. Quantum manifesto lists many items that might be funded under the Cloud Initiative [2], - Core technology of quantum repeaters - Secure point-to-point quantum links - Quantum networks between distant cities - Quantum credit cards - Quantum repeaters with cryptography and eavesdropping detection - Secure Europe-wide internet merging quantum and classical communication - Universal quantum computers will be available with computational power at a level of performance that will exceed even the most powerful classical computers of the future. They will be reprogrammable machines used to solve demanding computational problems, such as optimisation tasks, database searches, machine learning and image recognition. They will contribute to Europe’s smart industry, helping to make European manufacturing industries more efficient. [1]: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1409_en.htm http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1409_en.htm [2]: http://qurope.eu/system/files/u567/Quantum%20Manifesto.pdf http://qurope.eu/system/files/u567/Quantum%20Manifesto.pdf
    - ThePhysicist 10y ago
      The question is whether the 1 Bn. € allocated to quantum computing would have been spent on other cloud technologies instead, which in my understanding is not the case. As far as my understanding goes the flagship money was distributed via an open propsal-based process, so I really don't see how this money was "stolen" from other initiatives, as the goal of this kind of funding is to let researchers compete for it by making convincing proposals.
matt4077 10y ago
I'm as big a fan of the EU as there is, but even I wouldn't use the Human Brain Project as a /positive/ example.
- ThePhysicist 10y ago
  Why not?

nabla9 10y ago

Why is this money taken from "European Cloud Initiative"? It has nothing to do with it. Is the comission aware of this fact? Are all those research institutions standing behind claimed security impact of their work? Were security experts and cryptographers involved, or is this just wild speculation from physicists as DJB's Theory 2 assumes. I'm all for moving more EU money to basic research, but money can be moved to the direction I want with wrong promises.

ThePhysicist 10y ago
Honestly this is the first time that I hear this claim, and I cannot judge whether it is true or not (I will try to find out). What I know is that the money for the flagship projects was allocated around five years ago already (within the Horizon 2020 programme), and I am not aware of any relation to the European Cloud Initiative. The only mention of cloud computing at the conference was in the context of providing Quantum Computing capabilities over the cloud as a means to make these technologies accessible to a wider audience as soon as possible, as buying a quantum computer will probably be beyond the capabilities of most individuals / organizations for the foreseeable future.
- nabla9 10y ago
  €2 billion in Horizon 2020 funding will be allocated to the European Cloud Initiative[1]. Quantum manifesto lists many items that might be funded under the Cloud Initiative [2], - Core technology of quantum repeaters - Secure point-to-point quantum links - Quantum networks between distant cities - Quantum credit cards - Quantum repeaters with cryptography and eavesdropping detection - Secure Europe-wide internet merging quantum and classical communication - Universal quantum computers will be available with computational power at a level of performance that will exceed even the most powerful classical computers of the future. They will be reprogrammable machines used to solve demanding computational problems, such as optimisation tasks, database searches, machine learning and image recognition. They will contribute to Europe’s smart industry, helping to make European manufacturing industries more efficient. [1]: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1409_en.htm http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1409_en.htm [2]: http://qurope.eu/system/files/u567/Quantum%20Manifesto.pdf http://qurope.eu/system/files/u567/Quantum%20Manifesto.pdf
  - ThePhysicist 10y ago
    The question is whether the 1 Bn. € allocated to quantum computing would have been spent on other cloud technologies instead, which in my understanding is not the case. As far as my understanding goes the flagship money was distributed via an open propsal-based process, so I really don't see how this money was "stolen" from other initiatives, as the goal of this kind of funding is to let researchers compete for it by making convincing proposals.

matt4077 10y ago

I'm as big a fan of the EU as there is, but even I wouldn't use the Human Brain Project as a /positive/ example.

ThePhysicist 10y ago
Why not?