Quantum research centre to get $12 million funding boost

Te Whai Ao - The Dodds-Wall Centre will receive $12 million over the next five years to allow Aotearoa to be part of the quantum revolution.

The Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies is one of New Zealand's leading centres for quantum research and a Centre of Research Excellence.

Its research programme - Quantum Technologies Aotearoa - would focus on increasing New Zealand's workforce in the quantum technology space and increasing Aotearoa's collaboration with other countries in the field.

The sector utilised the principles of quantum physics to new and advanced technologies.

Te Whai Ao - Dodd-Walls director Fréd Vanholsbeeck said it was a huge opportunity for the country.

"We will be funding quantum technology with the goal to leverage collaboration with overseas partners, but also to develop the workforce here and the technology here in areas such as quantum sensing and quantum computing, to be part of the quantum revolution that's happening around the world," she said.

Aotearoa was among the leading scientific nations in the areas of quantum technology and photonics which the country specialised in, though it did not have the breadth of expertise like would be found in the US or Europe, she said.

"The few areas we are into we are definitely amongst the leaders in the scientific communities. You can see by the number of invited talks, we get invited to collaborate, we get invited to speak at events, so we are definitely up there in terms of excellence. But we don't span everything like in the US or Europe."

But research in these fields was costly and today's funding announcement would allow the research programme to invest in important equipment and to keep people in the field in Aotearoa, Vanholsbeeck said.

It would also allow for greater investment in people from communities which were traditionally underrepresented in the field.

"We are thrilled to expand our current research programmes and pay particular attention to the growth of Māori and Pasifika engagement within the quantum sector," she said.

Ministry for Business, Innovation and Enterprise international science partnerships manager Loveday Kempthorne said there were big opportunities for New Zealand.

"Quantum technologies have potentially transformative applications across many parts of society and in nearly every industry including climate and environmental monitoring, drug discovery and medical imaging, materials sciences and communication," Kempthorne said.

"This programme will support the robust research ecosystem needed to translate Aotearoa New Zealand's emerging strengths in quantum research into a diverse range of opportunities, enabling our researchers to initiate and respond to collaboration prospects and to become valued partners as governments, large technology companies and start-ups around the world invest heavily to achieve breakthroughs in quantum innovation."

Some of first the countries New Zealand would seek to collaborate with through the programme included the UK, Japan, Singapore, the US and Germany.

Australia was also active in quantum technology research and an important partner for New Zealand.