The project brings together nine European universities and 13 industry partners to tackle one of Europe’s most pressing technology challenges.
The Walton Institute, within the South East Technological University (SETU), will coordinate a €4m Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) project to train the next generation of quantum innovators in Europe.
Called Questing, nine universities and 13 industry partners will collaborate and train 15 fully-funded PhD students as Q-system innovators, which are specialists equipped with rare interdisciplinary expertise across areas such as quantum technology, communications, computing and social sciences.
According to SETU, Europe requires a trained workforce to design, manage and operate complicated systems on a large scale. The project was designed to address the critical skills gap in this area and revolutionise the secure communications and distributed computing space.
It also represents a significant boost for Ireland’s reputation on the world stage as a key player in the evolving quantum research sector. As coordinator, the Walton Institute will manage the entire consortium, enhance its international profile and attract top doctoral talent to the south-east region.
The Questing consortium includes Trinity College Dublin and University of Galway’s Irish Centre for High-End Computing among its partners and industry collaborators such as Airbus Defence and Space, British Telecommunications, Telecom Italia, and the Austrian Institute of Technology.
In training specialists who understand quantum systems from design all the way through to deployment, the project aims to not only give the continent a competitive edge in the development of the quantum internet but to also create a doctoral curriculum that becomes the European standard for training in quantum network systems.
Commenting on the announcement, Dr Indrakshi Dey, who is the principal investigator of Questing at the Walton Institute, encouraged Europe’s best and brightest to apply. She explained the project doesn’t just offer 15 PhD positions, rather, the group is inviting “exceptional minds to join an elite, interdisciplinary team backed by industry leaders and world-class infrastructure”.
She added, “If you are ready to stop studying the future and start engineering it, Questing is your launching pad.”
Dr Deirdre Kilbane, the director of Research at the Walton Institute said, “We are expanding on our existing quantum expertise with the announcement of this Questing project here in Walton Institute. Our team of researchers will be leaders in theoretical modelling and optimisation of advanced quantum networks which will benefit society in untold ways.”
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