Quantum metrology, sensing and imaging meets standardisation

The Quantum Technologies Flagship, officially launched on 29 October 2018 in Vienna, is a EUR 1 billion initiative, supported by the European Commission and Member States, funding over 5,000 of Europe's leading Quantum Technologies researchers over the next ten years and aimingatplacingEurope at the forefront of the second quantum revolution. Its long-term vision is to develop a quantum web, where quantum computers, simulators and sensors are interconnected via quantum communication networks. This will help kick-starting a competitive European quantum industry transformingresearch results intocommercial applications and disruptive technologies. The Joint Research Center (JRC) in cooperation with the European Committee for Standardization(CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization(CENELEC), European Commission’s Directorate General Communications Networks, Content and Technology(DG CNECT), and the German Institute of Standardisation (DIN), organised in Brussels on 28-29 March 2019 the Putting-Science-Into-Standards (PSIS) workshop on Quantum Technologies. The PSIS workshops is an initiative that brings together researchers, industry and standardisers with the purpose of facilitating the identification and screening of emerging science and technology areas that canbe introduced early into the process of standardisationto enable innovation.The experience with the innovation impact pathway of the Graphene Flagship that combinedtechnology push and market pull by working with industry stakeholderswas used to demonstrate the benefit of a strategic use of standardisation to increase technology readiness levels and reach the market.The participants of the workshop identified aspects that would benefit from standardisation activities in three main areas: (i) Quantum Key Distribution and quantum-safe security, (ii) Quantum metrology, sensing and imaging, (iii) and Quantum computing and internet. Several existing standardisation activities focussing on quantum enabled security techniques, quantum computing and communication were also mapped.With the direct involvement of the participants,the workshop prepared the ground towards a roadmap of additional pressing technology fields where standardisationcould add value to the deployment of Quantum Technologies in industrial applications,including security, sensing, imaging and measurement. An active dialogue between the communities of researchers and standardisers as well as a continuous interchange with the Quantum Technologies Flagship would be beneficial for future interactions and cooperation. The Standards, Innovation and Research Platform(STAIR / CEN and CENELEC)methodology could constitute a straightforward approach to host interactions between the communities of researchers and standardisers.Next steps would be to start an interaction (e.g. a cooperation agreement) with the Quantum Flagship and in particularwith the recently (April 2019) launched Coordination and Support Actionof theQuantum Flagship. As concrete actions for standardisation, the workshopsuggested to focus on the standardisation of a quantum technology terminology and on the development of an EU standardisation roadmap for Quantum Technologies. These could be addressed by a European Committee for Standardizationworkshop or by a focus group.