The Quantum PAck: An innovative program to support the quantum computing sector in Île-de-France

The Ile de France region announces the launch of the Quantum PAck (PAQ), a program to support the quantum computing sector in Ile de France, unique in Europe, aimed at creating synergies between large industrial groups and startups.

Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France Regional Council, said: “We want to continue to position the Ile de France region as the leading region in the world on quantum. We will set up the PAck Quantique Ile de France funded to the tune of 1.5 million euros over 3 years, including 0.6 million euros in 2020 for 3 projects, including one between the EDF group and the Paris-based startup Pasqal.”

In this context, the PAQ aims to enable the Ile de France region to strengthen its leadership in the quantum field at European level, to improve the competitiveness of Ile de France businesses internationally and to promote the dynamism and attractiveness of the Ile de France region to promote the establishment of new companies.

The PAQ aims to concretely demonstrate the advantage of quantum technologies for structuring and major industrial issues
by relying on a
Ile-de-France quantum ecosystem
highly
rich in startups, expertise and talents
and on the other hand on
quantum means
provided in the short term by the
startup Pasqal
and in the longer term on a future European high performance/quantum hybrid computing infrastructure made available by
GENCI
(Great National Supercomputing Equipment).

Philippe Lavocat, President of GENCI, says
: «
The cooperation of GENCI with the 3 selected projects is an exciting challenge that comes at a key moment in the French strategy of calculation and AI, aiming to host soon an Exascale-class machine equipped with a differentiating element, namely a hybrid HPC/quantum accelerator device.
»

The three PAQ projects, proposed for a vote in November, are the precursor to a more general operation similar to the IA Pack, which will finance 10 pilots with an average duration of 24 months, with regional funding spread over 3 years. In the continuity of the first selected projects, the PAQ also wishes to present new projects in the coming years to the regional vote.

In general, pilots are use cases expressed by industrial customers in sectors such as energy, pharmaceuticals and finance, and implemented by startups in Ile-de-France that can work in collaboration with academic members of the SIRTEQ, PCQC and Quantum Saclay network. The 3 pilots voted by the Ile de France regional council bring together two major groups EDF and TOTAL as well as the young company Qubit Pharmaceuticals, the startups Pasqal and QCWare; they aim to demonstrate a quantum advantage for use cases with significant impacts for these companies.

EDF and Pasqa have established a research collaboration since 2019 with a new objective through the project AQUARE: Demonstrate the Advantage QUAntique for Solving Complex Problems for the Eergie. The installation of smart electric charging stations is a major focus of EDF’s development for electric mobility. The allocation of electrical terminals, depending on their availability and the load of the electricity network in real time, is a problem whose complexity evolves exponentially with the demand. Traditional high-performance computing (HPC) today does not have enough power to deal with the problem in real time. the efforts made by Pasqal (creator of a quantum processor based on cold atoms) and EDF aim to solve this optimization problem.

Georges Reymond, Director General of Pasqal, says: “ We build quantum processors based on neutral atoms, a technology born and developed on the Saclay plateau. Thanks to this program, we will be able to use the computing power of about 200 qubits to solve industrial scope problems and expand their fields of application.”

Qubit Pharmaceuticals is a French company specialized in the design of molecules on computer. Its first market is pharmaceutical molecules with other long-term applications (materials, ionic liquids, etc.). its partnership with Pasqal through the project AQCMED – Advantage Quantum for Design MEDicaments – will allow dizzying advances in the availability of drug molecules on the market thanks to the reduction of a factor of 100 of its modeling process on high performance computing resources. The modeling time could thus be reduced to a few minutes on a quantum technology.

Robert Marino, President of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, said:
“We look forward to bringing our codes and algorithms to Pasqal’s quantum computer. Thanks to the computing power implemented, we are getting closer and closer to real time without compromising on the accuracy of the results.”

Industrial group Total and QCWare are committed to the project AQMuSE order to prove theAdvantage Quantum for Multi-Sourcing Energie and, in particular, solve optimization problems related to freight and oil logistics. QCWare’s industrial research project focuses on a problem called Generalized Pooling Problem (Generalized Pooling Problem) with many possible applications to industrial sectors other than energy such as wastewater recycling.

Christophe Jurczak, President of Le Lab Quantique, says: ‘ We are very pleased to be associated with the Quantum PAck, a unique initiative in the world that aims to drastically reduce the obstacles that currently limit, beyond the very performance of quantum processors, co-developments between technology developers (hardware and software) and customers to benefit from quantum acceleration. This is a first step and with GENCI we are thinking of federating all the actors within an embodied place – La Maison du Quantique – to facilitate the linking of industrialists with the quantum ecosystem and ensure its animation. »