Since 2016, the QuantERA has been successfully providing the QT research community with a coordinated, Europe-wide approach to supporting cutting-edge research and innovation in QT. The QuantERA II was launched in December 2020. The event brought together representatives of organisations constituting the QuantERA Consortium, EC Project Officer, members of QuantERA’s Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) as well as Quantum Flagship representatives, which enabled the setting of priorities related to the announcement of a new Co-funded Call 2021.
Having received the scientific input from the SAB, the Consortium followed the recommendations and launched the Call 2021 on Quantum Phenomena and Resources and Applied Quantum Science. The defined scope covered following research topics of the Call: Q communication, Q simulation, Q computation, Q information sciences, Q metrology sensing and imaging.
The Call 2021 was officially announced on March 12th 2021 and was widely communicated to the scientific community through national and European channels. Information about the new funding opportunity was disseminated during the webinars organised at the European level as well as at national level.
The Call 2021 consisted of two stages: the 1st stage invited pre-proposals and in the 2nd stage full proposals were reviewed. Pre-proposals had to be submitted within two months from the Call announcement. European research community showed high interest in the Call submitting 128 pre-proposals. Out of them, 91 pre-proposals were invited to the 2nd stage of the evaluation process. Each pre-proposal and full proposal was reviewed, evaluated and ranked by the scientific Evaluation Panel, based on the criteria recommended by the European Commission: Excellence, Impact and Quality and Efficiency of Implementation. Ultimately, 39 full proposal were recommended for funding. The success rate of the Call reaches over 30%.
Programme activities on spreading excellence in the field of QT were supported by the Call 2021 regulations, encouraging the inclusion of teams from “widening countries” into the project research consortia. 85% of successful projects involve research teams from widening countries.
Within the 1st reporting period, the focus was also on communication and dissemination activities that were crucial to the implementation of the QuantERA II. The performed actions were concentrated on transnational collaboration in QT by launching of the Co-funded Call, increasing visibility of the Programme and funded research projects in QT as well as raising awareness of the potential societal impacts of QT among the general public.
QuantERA opened the discussion about the second Call that will not be co-funded under the Programme. The discussions are expected to be concluded by the end of 2022. The Programme also arranged interviews with women coordinators of QuantERA projects to highlight the presence of female researchers in the field and to encourage the projects consortia to target gender equality objectives for QT.
