Strengthening Europe’s Leadership in Quantum: Paris Region’s Vision

As the Deep Tech expert, Thomas connects international companies with the ecosystem to facilitate their integration, and prepare them to access public support. In this interview, we explored why Choose Paris Region have choosen to exhibit at Quantum.Tech Europe 2024, third time in a row, the impact from the recent political change and what Thomas will be speaking about at Quantum.Tech Europe.

Please give us a little introduction on your current role and what you do

I work at Choose Paris Region. We offer free support to any international company looking to set up a subsidiary in our region. As the Deep Tech expert, I connect them with the ecosystem (clusters, experts, academics, institutions), facilitate their integration, and prepare them to access public support. I’ll be exhibiting at Quantum.Tech EU 2024 with a representative from Paris-Saclay, our leading tech and innovation campus, for the third time in a row.

Why do you always come along with Paris-Saclay at Quantum.Tech EU?

Paris Region’s leadership in quantum technologies heavily relies on Paris-Saclay’s expertise. This unique R&D cluster accounts for 50% of the Paris Region’s R&D activities, with the region itself responsible for 42% of France’s overall capacity. Remarkably, around 21% of France's entire research is conducted in Saclay, which represents only 0.01% of the country’s surface area. When it comes to quantum physics and mathematics, Saclay is home to a third of France’s expertise, all within 16 km of central Paris. Together, these ecosystems represent more than 50% of France's quantum tech research, involving 1,100 researchers.

Paris-Saclay innovation campus

Paris-Saclay deserves its place among the eight most powerful innovation hubs in the world, alongside Silicon Valley and the Boston biotech cluster, according to MIT Technology Review.

What is the most prominent achievement of this R&D cluster?

Paris-Saclay has been training quantum physicists for a long time. It’s where Albert Fert discovered giant magnetoresistance (the first revolution) and where Alain Aspect conducted his entanglement experiment (the second revolution). Since then, Quandela and Pasqal have emerged from these labs to become the champions they are today, producing quantum computers from their facilities in Paris-Saclay.

Moreover, Paris-Saclay University is ranked 12th overall in the Shanghai Ranking, first in Europe, with a specialisation in mathematics, alternating between first and second in the world alongside Princeton.

Quantum ecosystems are developing rapidly, what makes you stand above the noise?

• Paris Region is at the forefront of international competition thanks to several factors:
• A centralised R&D ecosystem providing both software and hardware technologies and talent.
• Exceptional infrastructure, such as the TGCC (very large computing centre), which is now being hybridised with a PASQAL 100-qubit quantum computer, and the C2N cleanrooms (Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology), enabling many technology providers (Air Liquide, Radiall, iXblue, WeLinQ, Silent Waves, Orano, Icon Photonics, etc.)
• Strong investment capacity, combining public and private funding from players like Bpifrance and Quantonation.

Find out more in our video: BreakThrough Quantum

France recently suffered political changes. What kind of impact do you think this will have on the quantum industry?

The national quantum plan remains unchanged, and the €1.8 billion allocated in 2021 over five years has not yet been fully implemented. Additional funding from the Defence Department has also been provided to accelerate the development and production of logical qubits over the next 15 years. This involves competition between four different technological platforms being developed in France. As a result, French quantum computing startups benefit from long-term national support.

In addition to this national support, the Paris Region is strongly committed to remaining the European leader in quantum computing. Since 2020, with its PAck Quantique (PAQ), Paris Region has encouraged large corporations, startups, and public labs to collaborate on practical problems. The region has already supported 13 different experiments under the PAQ, ranging from optimising EV charger locations to submarine simulation, with a total investment of over €8 million. The most exciting example is perhaps Allianz France’s recent project, which is using quantum machine learning to detect cyber threats, with contributions from Multiverse Computing (Spain) and hardware from IQM (Finland). The first PAQ in 2020 funded QCware’s French subsidiary to work with TotalEnergies. This is just the beginning.

You are kindly joining us this September for our European event at Twickenham Stadium - who are you looking forwards to meet?

I’m definitely looking forward to meeting the game-changers of the industry.

On the industrial side, all large companies investing in quantum computing are welcome in our ecosystem, where they can benefit from a rich and diverse range of opportunities. Paris Region offers the chance to work with the best startups and researchers.

On the technology providers’ side, I confirm that they are more than welcome to benefit from local grants if they create local jobs.

Thomas Fauvel, Deep Tech Industry Expert at Choose Paris Region will be exhibiting at Quantum.Tech Europe exploring and you can meet Thomas at booth C8 on the 24th and 25th September 2024 during the main conference. Thomas will also be participating on a panel alongside Alice & Bob and Pasqal looking at Industrials Unleashing Quantum Potential: Publicly Supported Experimentation Pushing Boundaries in Paris Region' answering the key questions:

• How does a public funding initiative foster collaborations between major industrial groups and startups?
• What benefits and issues are arising from these collaborative experiments where established corporations join forces with agile startups?
• How are users and startups overcoming unsolvable challenges?
• How can international companies leverage this unique public support?
  

You can view the full agenda ahead to Quantum.Tech Europe 2024 here.

To hear from Thomas next week at Quantum.Tech Europe, confirm your place here today.