NSW government backs ‘Quantum Academy’ for state

The New South Wales government has committed $500,000 towards developing a University of Sydney proposal to boost postgraduate training and research focused on quantum computing

Sydney Uni hosts the local arm of Microsoft’s global Station Q quantum computing laboratory network.

The proposed Sydney Quantum Academy has also drawn support from UNSW, which houses the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology; the University of Technology Sydney, home of the UTS Centre for Quantum Software and Information; and Macquarie University, where QSCITECH is based.

The four universities are due to detail the proposed academy to the NSW government in August.

“We have a tremendous wealth of expertise in quantum science and technology in NSW,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in a statement.

“There are researchers here who the world is watching closely, as the race to develop the first fully-functional quantum computer heats up.”

“The Quantum Academy will train a future generation of quantum engineers to build and program these machines,” the NSW premier said. “The Academy will also build on the expertise across our universities to create a quantum ecosystem that will benefit NSW.”

“NSW already has an unusually high concentration of quantum computing expertise and this funding from the NSW government will make sure our state continues to push boundaries in this field,” said deputy premier and skills minister John Barilaro.

The state government in mid-2017 announced a $26 million fund to support research into quantum computing.

The government said the NSW Quantum Computing Fund (QCF) would “support quantum computing development, commercialisation and high-level skills.”

In August, the government revealed it would invest $8.7 million from the QCF in Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) Pty Ltd — an effort to commercialise quantum computing technology backed by CQC2T’s investors, which alongside UNSW include Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the federal government.