Paris (AFP)
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron is to present Thursday morning on the Saclay plateau a national investment plan of 1.8 billion euros in quantum technologies, called to transform IT and industry, said the Elysium.
The envelope that will be announced by the President of the Republic brings together both the efforts of the State and affiliated organizations (1.05 billion euros) but also European credits (200 million euros), and the private sector (550 million).
France will thus drop "from 60 million euros per year" in public spending for quantum to "200 million per year, which would place it in third place behind the United States and China", according to an adviser to the 'Elysee Palace, which, for example, figures the annual public effort of Americans at $ 400 million.
Quantum technologies exploit the surprising properties of matter at the infinitely small scale (atom, ion, photon, electron ...).
They should eventually make it possible to build computers with calculation capacities ridiculing those of the most powerful current supercomputers.
They will also allow many industrial applications, such as the production of much more sensitive sensors than today, or the construction of inviolable means of communication.
Still in their infancy, they are starting to come out of research laboratories as prototypes, and it will probably take several more years to see viable commercial applications.
In detail, the French plan plans to devote an envelope of nearly 800 million euros to computers alone, whether these are the first machines to emerge (simulators and partially quantum machines, 350 million euros) , or those that will appear in the longer term (fully-fledged quantum computers, 430 million euros).
The other envelopes will be devoted to sensors (250 million euros), post-quantum cryptography (150 million euros), quantum communications (320 million euros) and related technologies that make it possible to build quantum equipment. (cryogenics for example, 300 million euros).
According to the Elysee, half of the announced public funds will come from the Future Investment Program, and half from the various research establishments involved in quantum (Inria, CNRS, CEA, etc.)
The quantum plan should in particular make it possible to finance "around one hundred thesis grants and around fifty post-doctoral contracts", to which could be added "a dozen excellent researchers that could be brought in per year", according to a adviser to the Elysee.
© 2021 AFP