Great interest in first national quantum call

As part of the realization of the national strategy for quantum technology and the desire to create the best framework for the Danish quantum ecosystem, Innovation Fund Denmark has carried out the first national quantum call. The fund received 40 applications for the Quantum Technologies Call in 2023 and is investing an additional DKK 100 million. DKK in quantum projects in 2024.

With a pool of DKK 116 million in 2023 for a program targeting quantum technology, Innovation Fund Denmark has taken the first step towards strengthening the Danish quantum position and the Danish quantum ecosystem.

In October, Innovation Fund Denmark received 40 applications for the Quantum Technologies Call.

The advertisement had a strong focus on giving applicants the opportunity to apply with very early research projects within the foundational research. This opportunity was well utilized, as the general starting TRL level (Technology Readiness Level) for the applications was 2. At the same time, over half of the applications had one or more companies as partners.

- The great interest and high quality of the applications partly shows a great need in the ecosystem, but also a strong connection between research and the quantum industry in Denmark, which bodes well for the future efforts within quantum technology in 2024, says Cecilie Brøkner, director of Innovation Fund Denmark.

Innovation Fund Denmark has just announced the projects that have applied in 2023, and is now starting to prepare the cashing out of the 100 million kroner that has been set aside for a quantum technology effort on the research reserve for 2024.

Other highlights:

• Applicants applied for a total of DKK 734 million. kroner
• Both universities, small and medium-sized enterprises and GTS were represented in the applications
• The applications received range widely and cover, for example, quantum computers and chips, new medicine and quantum chemistry, communications, cryptography and cyber security, algorithms and education, materials and photonics.
• Both very exploratory projects and very mature projects represented
• Several international partners represented in the applications - research institutions as well as companies

Background:

With a priority of 1 billion in the period 2023-2027, the government has set the framework for a concentrated effort across several players to grow the burgeoning quantum ecosystem in Denmark.

In this connection, Innovation Fund Denmark has been tasked, among other things, with supporting the early, ground-breaking quantum research and at the same time ensuring that major collaborative projects between both national and international companies and research institutions have a dedicated pool of funds.

This has required a new tool to be able to especially seize the early, ground-breaking projects with a clear development direction towards commercialization, as the fund's market coverage showed that the maturity of the business side was not yet sufficient.

In order to meet the need, Innovation Fund Denmark adapted the normally applicable guidelines for the Grand Solutions program with special conditions in "Quantum Technologies Call 2023".

This meant, among other things, that Innovation Fund Denmark made it possible not to have industry or business collaboration in a project, raised the percentage for maximum funding from 75 percent to 90 percent and rewrote the impact criterion so that it could accommodate the early projects.

This would like to lead to an application pool with a lower start and end TRL level than on the regular Grand Solutions calls. At the same time, it should make it attractive to involve companies, many of which in the quantum environment are still startups, even though this was no longer a requirement for the early, foundational applications.