EQUALITY

(Quantum Algorithms for Industrial Applications)

Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement 101080142

Born in Europe roughly 100 years ago, quantum physics brought forth a veritable technological revolution through semiconductors, lasers, fibre optics, and many other technologies that are today ubiquitous in our lives. Now, during the second quantum revolution, Europe can take the lead once more in quantum science and technology.

Quantum computers, the exponents of this second revolution, can perform a number of operations that are too difficult, or even impossible, for regular processors. And as they approach widespread commercial application, these incredible machines represent a potentially massive market opportunity in several sectors.

The EQUALITY consortium brings together scientists, innovators, and prominent industrial players with the mission of developing cutting-edge quantum computer algorithms to solve strategic industrial problems. The project targets eight paradigmatic industrial problems that can benefit the most from the quantum-enabled speed-up, including airfoil aerodynamics, battery or fuel cell design, and space mission optimisation.

These problems are computationally complex and are faced routinely by the industrial partners. Hence, the opportunity provided by quantum computers to tackle such questions computationally would give a competitive edge to the European industry.

By transforming current industrial interest into widespread adoption, EQUALITY will solidify the link between strategic European industries and the emerging quantum ecosystem, while also contributing to technologies critical to the green transition.

EMERGE

(New Framework for AI Collective Awareness)

Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement 101070918

How do robots in a collective know what the group as a whole is doing? How can connected devices make sense of the world around them with so many interconnections? How can a robotic arm composed of many independent parts understand how its body behaves as it reaches for an object? When intelligence is distributed across many parts, be they robots, devices, or objects, it can be tricky for the bigger picture to emerge.

Yet answering these questions is key to making collective systems that are easy to design, monitor and control. The EMERGE consortium will deliver a new philosophical, mathematical, and technological framework to demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, how a collaborative awareness – a representation of shared existence, environment and goals – can arise from the interactions and perceptions of individual agents.

In this effort, the consortium will rely only on unstructured conditions that the real world demands without leveraging a pre-existing shared language between artificial beings. EMERGE will implement a clear research-to-technology pathway to surpass limitations and barriers of the current state-of-the-art distributed systems to produce breakthroughs and open new markets in the next generation of robotic systems.

And while robotics provides the perfect testing ground for this new framework, EMERGE also envisions impact in areas such as Internet-of-Things (IoT), smart cities and transportation, microservice-based information and communications technology (ICT) systems, and biomedical nanodevices, among others.