RDI, research infrastructure and piloting – Promoting innovation and research infrastructure – National research infrastructures – Finnish Quantum Computer Infrastructure

Quantum computers can provide solutions to problems that will forever stay intractable using conventional computing.

Quantum computing is expected to impact practically all areas of research and industry.

Some of the most pressing challenges of our society, from accurate modelling of complex weather systems, via optimisation of resource usage, to development of novel, sustainable materials can be tackled with the unprecedented vigour of quantum computers.

The Finnish Quantum Computing Infrastructure (FiQCI) will provide an open-access platform for quantum computing, with state-of-the-art physical quantum computers and quantum computer emulators, accessable through a unified service interface.

As the quantum computers will be operated on-premise of the infrastructure partners, it provides a unique tool for education and research at all levels, from high-level software (SW) access for algorithm development to lower stack levels.

The project will acquire a quantum computer (QC) customised for deep operation depth (deep-circuit quantum computer), and launch an open access quantum computing service platform, integrated with an already operational quantum computer emulator. In order to be of benefit for solving real-world problems, a quantum computer needs to be capable of running programs on a sufficiently long gate path from the input to the output, i.e., enable execution of sufficiently deep algorithms.

The deep-circuit Quantum Computer of this proposal is a crucial step towards quantum advantage, complementing the other major investment of FiQCI, the quantum computer for wide algorithms.

The noise levels in QCs increase with qubit count, leading to reduced circuit depth.

Thus, having two complementary QCs, one for “wide” circuits up to 50 qubits, and one for deep circuits, enabling longer run times, enables research, education and development on a sufficiently wide front.

The QCs also provide a low-level access for quantum system simulation experiments, enabling enables research and education on physical quantum systems using the QC as a quantum simulator platform.

Further, the project will develop the remote access computational service and a quantum algorithms library, required for deploying the service to the end-users.

FiQCI supports academic research and education, as well as industrial uptake of quantum computing, and is expected to give the required boost to national quantum software and algorithm research efforts.