OTTAWA — The U.S. is leading discussions with several other advanced economies on how they can cooperate on the development of quantum technology in the face of China’s advances in the field, The Logic has learned. 

Officials from Canada, and several other OECD countries met in Washington, D.C., this week, following initial talks in January. 

Quantum computers can handle huge data sets and more complex algorithms, and eventually threaten to break existing forms of encryption. Canadian researchers and startups have made some significant early advances in the field.

A draft agenda for Thursday’s meeting in Washington featured representatives from several governments presenting their quantum strategies, followed by discussions on supply chains and cryptography, according to a source with knowledge of the event. Countries scheduled to attend included the U.S. and Canada, as well as Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. said the source, whom The Logic has agreed not to name because they were not authorized to speak publicly.   

Nipun Vats, assistant deputy minister for science and research at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), “has been in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss continued collaboration with like-minded countries on quantum,” said department spokesperson Hans Parmar, adding that the Canadian government is “committed to working with key like-minded, trusted partners, in areas such as quantum, to improve our science, technology and innovation capacity and to strengthen scientific excellence.” 

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is making a push on quantum as Chinese researchers achieve significant gains. On Wednesday, Biden directed federal agencies to coordinate on a national strategy for the disruptive technology, including promoting the use of post-quantum cryptography, protecting R&D and IP, and training scientists and engineers in the field. That follows the December 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act, with which the U.S. mandated new research centres and projects worth US$1.1 billion over four years. 

The Chinese government is reportedly spending billions on science and infrastructure for the technology. In a late 2020 report, a group of tech executives and foreign-policy experts co-chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recommended that the U.S. form “trust zones” in which “like-minded countries” would “incentivize collective innovation against China in AI, quantum computing, 5G,” and other fields by exchanging IP and coordinating R&D. 

In an April 2021 interview with The Logic, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne backed another of the group’s proposals, for a T12 forum of “techno-democracies” that would share information on and set standards for emerging technologies, including quantum. 

Canada’s Liberal government has also pledged support for the emerging sector domestically. The April 2021 federal budget allocated $360 million over seven years for a national quantum strategy. Ottawa has yet to publish its final plan, but in March, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada began soliciting applications for nearly $138 million in grant funding under the program. The innovation department’s flagship Strategic Innovation Fund has also backed startups and scale-ups in the space, including Burnaby, B.C.-based D-Wave and the Waterloo, Ont., firms Cognitive Systems, High Q Technologies and Isara. 

In a statement to The Logic, D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said the company is “highly supportive of this week’s global discussions for the advancement of quantum technology” taking place in Washington. He called for participating governments to work with industry on supporting commercial and public-sector use of the technology and the development of a skilled workforce.

“D-Wave itself is a showcase of why international participation [and] collaboration is important,” said Allison Schwartz, global government relations and public affairs leader, noting that its annealing quantum computers are based on theories from research done in Japan, and that the company recently installed one of its systems in Germany. 

Many current national strategies for the technology focus exclusively on long-term hardware development or cryptography, and not at all on short-term applications. “They’re looking at, ‘How do we build a system that can break encryption?’ from a defence perspective, rather than, ‘How can we also potentially utilize it today to optimize some global issues?’” she said. D-Wave has called for Ottawa to establish a “quantum sandbox” to develop and test applications. Schwartz said such a program could partner with peers in other cooperating countries to share researchers and solutions. 

“Artificial intelligence and quantum computing are going to have transversal impacts on different industries,” Champagne said in a December 2021 interview with The Logic, claiming the country’s strength in both technologies had helped attract foreign direct investment projects in the biotech and aerospace sectors. 

The U.S. has already agreed to cooperate bilaterally on quantum with Japan, as well as Australia, Finland, Sweden and the U.K.; the field is also cited in broader science and technology agreements with Canada, France and Germany.  

Canada has been part of discussions to establish a multilateral collaboration framework for quantum since at least the start of the year, according to internal innovation-department documents The Logic obtained via access-to-information request. In January, Vats participated in a meeting to “gauge interest from leading countries” in the field on “further cooperation,” according to a memo prepared for Champagne later that month. 

Sections of the document are redacted, including which country convened the group and details of the proposed collaboration. But the memo notes that participating in the multilateral initiative “could be a positive first step to advance Canada’s international quantum agenda,” citing opportunities to pool resources, open markets up to products developed here, and harmonize standards. The source said that the initial meeting took place in France.

Canada has spearheaded international cooperation efforts in another disruptive technology field: artificial intelligence. The 25-member Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, launched in June 2020, grew out of a G7 agreement during Canada’s presidency in March 2018, and advanced in a bilateral compact with France that June.