FAPESP aims to boost the development of quantum technologies in Brazil

Foundation launches program aimed at accelerating creation, training human resources and stimulating scientific and technological leadership in the state of São Paulo and Brazil in the field, with potential impacts on sectors such as health, agriculture, communications and computing.

By Elton Alisson  |  Agência FAPESP – The FAPESP Quantum Technologies Initiative (QuTIa) program was launched on December 11th, 2024.

With a budget of around BRL 31 million over an initial period of five years, the initiative aims to accelerate development, train human resources and strengthen scientific and technological leadership in the state of São Paulo and Brazil in quantum technologies. This is an emerging field of physics and engineering that aims to promote practical applications of the properties of quantum mechanics, such as superposition and entanglement, in areas such as sensors, communications and computing. The program also aims to stimulate the creation of startups and attract global investment and talent to the region.

“In addition to the traditional research programs maintained by FAPESP in areas such as biodiversity, bioenergy and climate change, we decided that we should launch some new challenges for the research community in the state of São Paulo. This has led to the launch of recent initiatives on topics such as artificial intelligence, research in the South Atlantic and Antarctic, and now quantum technologies and science,” said Marco Antonio Zago, president of FAPESP, at the program’s launch ceremony.

According to Zago, one of the factors that motivated the creation of QuTIa was a white paper published in 2020 by researchers from São Paulo, which summarized the situation in Brazil, and especially in the state of São Paulo, regarding quantum technologies.

In the document, the researchers emphasized that the potential impact of quantum technologies is vast, ranging from sensors for health, biology, and agriculture to cybersecurity in communications, as well as potential advantages in solving complex computational problems through quantum computing. “They suggested that FAPESP should launch a program on the topic,” said Zago.

The global market for various existing quantum technologies, led by photonics, semiconductors and cybersecurity, is estimated to be more than USD 1 trillion. Global investment in research and development (R&D) in the area has already reached the USD 42 billion mark. In some countries, this exceeds that of artificial intelligence and is focused on second-generation quantum technologies, including remote sensing, quantum communications and quantum computing.

“All of these strands of second-generation quantum technologies exploit quantum properties of matter that were discovered throughout the 20th century and have already been demonstrated at some scale in the laboratory. We believe that this QuTIa initiative to promote the development of a quantum technologies ecosystem is the shortest and most reasonable way to deliver scientific achievements and innovations driven by quantum technologies,” said Gustavo Wiederhecker, professor at the State University of Campinas’s Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW-UNICAMP) and coordinator of the program.

Global competition

According to Wiederhecker, today, in the global race to develop quantum computers, several countries are imposing restrictions to control the export of not only computers but also the technologies used to build these machines. “I call it the quantum embargo,” he said. That’s why he believes it’s essential for Brazil to invest in developing its own solutions and form alliances to address the challenges in the field.

“This is a new topic everywhere in the world. We need to understand how we can position ourselves as a nation to address some of these concerns with our interests at the forefront,” he noted.

In an online presentation during the event, Chris Monroe, a professor at Duke University in the United States, also pointed out that quantum computing is entering a stage of development that will require more corporate involvement to make the technology viable.

“We’re entering an engineering phase in this field where industry really needs to get involved,” said the researcher, who is co-founder of IonQ – a quantum computing hardware and software company based in College Park, Maryland, United States.

“It’s not clear how these quantum computing technologies will play out, but it may turn out that the companies that make ordinary computers may not be the right companies to make these new computers,” said Monroe.

Brazil has invested in training researchers in quantum technologies, who over the past 20 years have explored a variety of topics through the Millennium Institutes and the National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCTs), with a greater focus on quantum information, Wiederhecker noted.

The Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) created by FAPESP in recent years, such as the Optics and Photonics Research Center (CePOF), based at the University of São Paulo (USP), São Carlos campus, have also contributed to the establishment of strong research groups in the field in the state of São Paulo.

However, the scope and volume of resources of these programs are still limited and to some extent dispersed, which has allowed the advancement of basic quantum science, which is less expensive, and is insufficient to foster the development of quantum devices, which require larger investments, pondered participants in the event.

“The launch of the QuTIa program by FAPESP is in line with the federal government’s initiatives to promote sustainable and inclusive economic and social development. In this context, quantum technologies stand out for their potential to revolutionize sectors such as communications, computing and metrology,” said Ulisses Rocha, Secretary of Science and Technology for Digital Transformation at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), who participated in the online event.

Attracting talent

One of the first actions to establish the QuTIa program was the launch of a call for proposals by FAPESP in April 2024, with the aim of bringing to Brazil up to five early-career researchers with outstanding achievements in their fields.

One of them was the Colombian physicist Hans Marin Florez from the Federal University of ABC (UFABC). The researcher and his collaborators intend to develop the country’s first atomic magnetometer in different size scales, combining the sensor with compressed light produced by an atomic optical parametric oscillator (OPO) – a light source that produces two entangled light beams – to improve the reading of a type of quantum light source.

“This has many applications in different fields, such as health, for the study of brain function, but also for the detection of metallic objects, battery manufacturing defects without the use of X-rays, and more recently in communications, through the use of magnetic sensors,” explained Florez, who participated in the online event.

Researcher Amilson Fritsch, from the São Carlos Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo (IFSC-USP), wants to build an ion trap with applications in quantum computing and to increase the precision of measurements.

“The machine can be used for different types of experiments, and one of them will be for metrology,” said Fritsch.

The work of Rodrigo Benevides, a physicist at the Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo (IF-USP), is also aimed at applications in quantum computing. The researcher and his collaborators plan to develop a modular optical microwave quantum transducer.

“We intend to build a new laboratory for the construction of engineered quantum communication systems,” said Benevides.

For his part, researcher Rafael Barros, also from IF-USP, will study quantum states with special modes as part of his project, and physicist Saimon Silva, from IFGW-UNICAMP, will work on developing solid-state single-photon sources for telecommunication frequencies.

“The main objective of the project is to develop a new single source that operates in the telecommunications regime,” said Silva.

Next steps

One of the next steps in the establishment of the QuTIa program will be the launch, in the first quarter of 2025, of a joint call by FAPESP and the Rio de Janeiro Research Foundation (FAPERJ) to fund collaborative research in quantum technologies between researchers from both states.

Through the call, the two institutions will select up to five proposals from junior and senior researchers.

“The selected proposals could receive funding of up to BRL 6 million, to be divided equally between the two institutions. In addition, we’ll launch a call for collaborative research consortia in quantum technologies,” said Marcio de Castro, scientific director of FAPESP.

Up to three consortia will be selected, each of which could receive BRL 10 million in funding.

“The scope of this call will also include defense applications of quantum technologies to be developed in collaboration with researchers from military institutions such as the Army, Navy and Air Force,” said Wiederhecker.