Fruitful collaboration between academia and industry is a key component for reaching the goal of taking Sweden to the forefront of the quantum revolution. Companies provide WACQT scientists with important real-life applications to investigate, while the companies gain forefront knowledge and competence which allow them to identify business opportunities based on quantum technology.
Things can happen quickly once the quantum revolution starts rolling. Then it's important to have the right skills and to be able to speed up at the right pace.
The main instrument for industrial collaboration is industrial PhD students working on projects that represent sectors in which quantum technology can result in competitive advantages.
Six companies, all having explicit interests in the exploitation of quantum technology, have joined WACQT as industrial partners. Read more about their quantum technology interests and PhD projects below.
As the development of quantum hardware represents a formidable engineering challenge beyond the state of the art, WACQT also has established partnerships with a number of companies that are specialists in technology needed for building quantum computers or quantum sensors. Read more about our enabling technology partners below.
Industrial collaboration coordinator
- Director Industrial Relations, MC2 Operations Support, Microtechnology and Nanoscience
Industrial partners
Saab
Saab is interested in developing new applications for the defence industry. In their two PhD projects, they will develop a new radar concept – quantum noise radar – in which they will investigate whether entanglement between generated photons can improve the performance of radar systems.
Hitachi Energy Sweden
Hitachi Energy Sweden is mainly interested in investigating new concepts within quantum communication networks. In their PhD project, they will study how to achieve the so-called ‘perfectly secured’ key distribution by quantum techniques, considering industrial aspects of long distance, diverse physical media, and multi-party communications.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is interested in quantum chemistry and in developing new techniques for simulating molecules. The goal of their PhD project is to develop and validate algorithms that can run on quantum hardware, thereby enabling the study of potential-energy surfaces of small molecules. In the long term, extensions of these approaches may become useful in drug discovery.
Ericsson
Ericsson has interests in both quantum computing and quantum communication. In their PhD project, they will investigate how remote entanglement between two quantum processors can be obtained and used for running small quantum algorithms, such as the quantum Fourier transform.
Jeppesen
Jeppesen is interested in how quantum algorithms can be used to solve advanced optimization problems. Their PhD project focuses on developing new quantum algorithms for more effective planning of airline operations.
Volvo
Volvo’s main interest is to study how new quantum algorithms can be used to speed up certain steps in computer-intensive simulations. Their PhD project focuses on finding ways in which a quantum computer can enhance machine learning, and how such enhancements can be applied in the automotive industry.
Enabling technology partners
Deep Light Vision
Deep Light Vision is a medical technology company specialised in molecular imaging technology for medical diagnostics. In our quantum sensing project Development of instruments for deep tissue clinical imaging with molecular specificity, Deep Light Vision contributes with an industrial post-doc and extensive experience on optical medical imaging and related techniques.”
Research Institutes of Sweden
Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) cooperates with WACQT to develop better laser frequency stabilisation and more precise frequency standards in the quantum sensing project Slow light cavities for optical metrology. The project benefits from the existing international metrology contacts of the Swedish National Metrology Institute (which is a part of RISE), and the results are expected to be useful for both parts.
Intermodulation Products
Intermodulation Products is dedicated to the research and development of measurement and analysis techniques for nonlinear physics and quantum technology. Within WACQT, they we are adapting digital hardware developed for 5G telecommunications, to realise a software-defined-radio system for the control and read-out of microwave quantum technology.
Sahlgrenska
Sahlgrenska is interested in how quantum algorithms can be used within life science and in particular applications within existing diagnostic flows and research projects at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the Sahlgrenska Academy. Sahlgrenska University Hospital has therefore funded one PhD position in parallel with a PhD position funded by WACQT to jointly explore this emerging field. This project is initially aimed at finding application for quantum computation in DNA sequencing and protein folding.