OREANDA-NEWS. Vnesheconombank is creating a network for exchange between research teams, end users, development institutions and government authorities. In the meeting dealing with the support of quantum information processing projects, the aspects of organising this interaction were discussed by VEB, VEB Innovation, Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defence Industry (FPI), Rostelecom, Sberbank, Skolkovo Research and Technology Institute (Skoltech), Russia’s Defence Ministry and Federal Security Service.

VEB Innovation chief executive Kirill Bulatov said, “Today’s Russia has internationally recognised research brands and teams, and they have a background of applying quantum technology designs and concepts to create real solutions. But obviously, the researchers, government authorities as their clients, potential technology users and development institutions do not cooperate as much as they could have done. By consolidating all parties’ efforts and steady financing, Russia will propel its quantum technology to new heights. The overarching objectives will not be solved by financing projects locally. What we need to do if to build a dedicated ecosystem that would cover training of people, procurement of equipment and components and aspects concerning implementing solutions created by researchers.”

On the one hand, the exchange network promoted by VEB will help researchers get the financing they need. And on the other hand, it will help overcome the lack of demand for the new products and solutions, which can be the case if a solution was not ordered by a customer. With the exchange in place, researchers will be spending less time to get the financing and file reports, while their customers will be able to describe the objectives they actually need to solve, arrange for working together with research teams and institutions or for new teams to be created to match the customers’ agenda.

“With the modern research exchange network, we would be able to further enhance the technology and information infrastructure, to identify and solve the training and education objectives, to involve young talent and to enable researchers obtain higher qualifications”, pointed out Mr. Bulatov.

It is planned that in the immediate future, VEB, VEB Innovation and FPI will ally to launch action to offer consultancy and training and promote knowledge about the development of quantum technology in Russia. To do that, they will involve and work together with research community, national government, technology companies and development institutions. The consultancy and training efforts are supposed to bring about new integration mechanisms for authorities, institutions, businesses and researchers who are active in the Russian quantum technology sector.

Mr. Sergey Garbuk, a deputy chief executive and information research director at the FPI emphasised that quantum technology researchers and their potential customers will be able to work together successfully if the researchers and academics will place a greater focus on the objectives of pragmatic importance. “The main threat here is that the research and development projects that are planned do not address practical needs and objectives. We believe that we first need to understand the technology application objectives. And once we understand them, we will be able to make the arrangements for the research projects and efforts”, he explained.