The mobilisation of efforts to launch the QuantERA initiative began in 2014, when the National Science Centre (NCN) gathered together the representatives of the European scientific community and national Research Funding Organisations (RFO) in Europe to present the vision for a transnational consortium in Quantum Technologies (QT). A joint Letter of Intent, expressing interest regarding involvement in QuantERA, was signed by the first partners in August 2014. As the number of signatories rose over the months that followed, it became clear that there was a critical mass available for the implementation of the programme.
In June 2015, at a meeting in Krakow, Poland, 31 representatives of RFOs from 20 European and associated countries expressed their strong interest in joining a multilateral QT programme at the European level, to be coordinated by NCN. Since then, common efforts have been undertaken to organise a trust-based Consortium of RFOs aimed at preparing the QuantERA Programme, which was launched in 2016.
The QuantERA programme currently continues within QuantERA II, launched in 2021. Built on the successes of QuantERA I, it has shown a considerable growth in participation in the programme, as currently the Consortium is composed of 39 Research Funding Organisations from 31 countries.
QuantERA II aims to sustainably continue this progress towards the programme’s aims and objectives. It is the leading European network of public Research Funding Organisations for Quantum Technologies.