The House of Quantum will be in Delft, on the campus of the University of Technology (TU Delft), and building work has just started.
“With the House of Quantum we are taking the next important step in building the best ecosystem for quantum technology for Europe,” said Freeke Heijman (pictured), founder and director of ecosystems at Quantum Delta NL.
“It’s great to soon have a place where our programme comes together ‘physically’. This really will be our business card to the world.”
The House of Quantum, which will occupy 12,000m2, will be built around an ecosystem of companies, investors and researchers to create quantum technologies and businesses. Target completion date is 2024.
The news comes just days after the European Commission separately selected a consortium of companies, including Airbus and Orange, plus research institutes to study the design of the future European quantum communication infrastructure network (EuroQCI).
The Delft unit will house various start-ups, corporate labs and shared tech facilities. The campus already houses part of the university’s Faculty of Applied Sciences and a new cleanroom is also in the making, so all quantum and nano activities will soon be clustered within walking distance of each other.
The idea that the House of Quantum will be the national headquarters of this quantum campus and will be further developed in close cooperation with the ASR Dutch Science Park Fund, which invests in commercially exploitable real estate in Dutch science parks.
This is not the first sign of support from the Netherlands. In April the government awarded €615 million from its national growth fund to accelerate the country’s work in quantum technology.
The money went to Quantum Delta NL, which has five major quantum hubs — Delft as well as Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Leiden and Twente.
The aim is for scientists, entrepreneurs, students, financiers and companies to work together in what the Dutch are calling a barrierless ecosystem to accelerate technology development and its applications.
TU Delft said that the House of Quantum “will be the physical heart of this ecosystem. It will be an open meeting place around quantum technology where various functions will be integrated: space for scientists, start-ups and the business community, combined with rooms for meetings and interaction”.
Victor Land, of QuSoft in Amsterdam and coordinator of Quantum Delta NL’s Living Lab Quantum and Society, said: “With the House of Quantum, we are building a national quantum ecosystem with international impact and a place where we collectively develop technology and applications for a healthy society for all.”
