The QuantERA Call 2025 was attended by 34 funding organizations from 29 countries. 287 project proposals involving more than 1,400 research teams applied for support. In the end, only 39 international consortia with a total budget of 53 million euros were awarded funding. “International projects of this type are among the most prestigious forms of European scientific cooperation. We are all the more pleased that we managed to succeed with two projects and further develop cooperation with leading European laboratories in the field of quantum technologies,” says Associate Professor Matěj Komanec from the Department of Electromagnetic Fields at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Czech Technical University (pictured), who leads the ICON project.
The ICON project brings a new approach to quantum communications. While current systems mostly try to adapt quantum technologies to the existing telecommunications infrastructure, researchers from the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Czech Technical University and their partners are turning this principle inside out – they are developing a communication infrastructure designed specifically for the needs of quantum systems. The second supported project, EXCEL-QKD, led by Professor Stanislav Zvánovec from the Department of Electromagnetic Fields at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Czech Technical University, will focus on the further development of quantum cryptographic key distribution. It is one of the most promising technologies for future secure communications, which uses the principles of quantum physics to protect transmitted data.