Europe's Quantum Communication Community Gathers in Dublin for IrelandQCI Event

Quantum technology specialists from across Europe are gathering at the Camden Court Hotel in Dublin city this week for a 3-day conference organised by the IrelandQCI Project Leads at Walton Institute in South East Technological University (SETU).
Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, with special responsibility for Communications and Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth T. D., was delighted to address attendees today, Tuesday, 2 July 2024, an audience made up of representatives from the European Commission, European Space Agency and technology specialists from across Irish and European industry and academia.
The €10m Ireland Quantum Communications Infrastructure (QCI) project, almost one and a half years into its 30 month duration, is one of several EuroQCI projects across the European Union which sees the European Commission working with 27 Member States, as well as the European Space Agency, towards the deployment of a secure quantum communication infrastructure spanning the EU.
The €10m project, co-funded by the European Commission and the Irish government's Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, is working to create an innovative quantum technology ecosystem, future-proofing Ireland's communications infrastructure against cyber-attacks.
The IrelandQCI team is working to establish Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) infrastructure along a major network backbone from Dublin to Cork via Waterford using a quantum channel integrated with existing classical fibre systems.
The project will trial 16 quantum security technology scenarios with key stakeholders across the general public, industry and academic sectors over the project duration.
This week's QCI Ireland event in Dublin spans 3 days of industry and academic stakeholder engagement, workshops, training and technology specialist addresses from representatives of the European Commission's PETRUS network - the organisation coordinating the deployment of EuroQCI - and will see over 150 attendees each day.
Opening remarks today were delivered by John Regan, Managing Director of ESB Telecoms, who then introduced Ossian Smyth T.D. who commented on the importance of the IrelandQCI project and Ireland's fantastic collaborative efforts with the EU and wider EuroQCI territories.
Minister Smyth said, 'I'm delighted that the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is co-funding the IrelandQCI project with the European Commission. With the creation of a secure communication network, this project represents a major step forward in our ability to protect and encrypt communications.
Working collaboratively with European partners through the EuroQCI initiative is a key pillar of the project and I'm glad to see members of other European QCI projects in attendance.
I'd like to commend the Walton Institute for organising today's event which has brought together a wide range of stakeholders from across many different industries. Today's event will benefit both the IrelandQCI project and stakeholders in attendance through collaboration and knowledge-sharing'.
Waterford's Walton Institute in SETU is leading the €10 million IrelandQCI project on behalf of SFI CONNECT. Several national universities and research centres make up the consortium of partners involved in the project, including quantum technology experts from Trinity College Dublin, UCC's Tyndall National Institute, UCD, Maynooth University and the Irish Centre for High-End Computing at the University of Galway, and industry partners HEAnet and ESB Telecoms.
These academic and industry specialists are pooling their expertise and resources to achieve success in adding an extra security layer to Ireland's communications infrastructure and the data it transmits.
Project Lead and Director of Research at Walton Institute, Dr Deirdre Kilbane, commented: "This event is an excellent coming-together of the quantum communication community not only from across Ireland but ac...