Driving a quantum technology ecosystem with the aid of all important stakeholders and the markets of application

The Spanish Association of Electronics, Digital Contents and ICT Companies (Asociación de Empresas de Electrónica, Tecnologías de la Información, Telecomunicaciones y Contenidos Digitales: AMETIC), in collaboration with the Spanish Science and Technology Federation (Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología: FECYT) has organized a conference to present the “Quantum Spain” report. This report gives an overview of Spain’s quantum technology ecosystem, focusing on the application of socially and economically impactful technological solutions in various key sectors of Spain’s economy.

The report was presented by Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón, General Manager of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions sector and President of AMETIC’s Innovation Committee, together with Ulises Arranz Cuéllar, Head of the quantum area of ACCENTURE, and Alfonso Rubio-Manzanares, President of Barcelonaqbit and Coordinator of AMETIC’s Quantum Technology Group. Álvarez-Gascón talked about the importance of winning a more influential position in cutting-edge technology like quantum technology, where Europe and Spain’s role is modest compared to the leading countries like USA and China.

The various speeches dealt with such aspects as communication, simulation, cryptography and quantum computation as the most promising features within this field. Another strong argument was that quantum technology should be given more prominence in the new state R&D strategy. The experts highlighted the need of building up a “Quantum Spain” and joining in in the 3^rd Quantum Revolution, stressing too the importance of the human factor in this endeavor. This sterling challenge involves bringing the supply- and demand-sides together to generate an ecosystem capable of carrying out innovating activity in Spain.

In the second part of the day several lectures looked at the impact of quantum technology in various sectors of application. Specific cases commented on were the banking sector, communications and cybersecurity, discussed respectively by representatives from the bank BBVA, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Alastria Association. Among other use cases aeronautics companies use these technologies in such matters as route management or optimization of the aircraft’s hold, both factors being tricky to solve with classic computing; carmakers are working on quantum computing to solve looming challenges like autonomous driving; the pharmaceutical industry will be tapping into this technology for the discovery and definition of new drugs; lastly, banking, where this technology will be applied to solve the need for huge volumes of data to be processed for risk- and fraud-analysis.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT “QUANTUM SPAIN: A business-based approach”