Singapore announces National Quantum Strategy

Singapore is dedicating a new chunk of its Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 budget to support a National Quantum Strategy. Image credit: Shutterstock.com/Travelpixs

Singapore has launched a new National Quantum Strategy (NQS) to strengthen its position as a leading hub in the development and deployment of quantum technologies. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Mr Heng Swee Keat announced the NQS in his Opening Address at Asia Tech x Summit (ATxSummit) on 30 May 2024. ATxSummit is part of ATxSG, which is the region’s flagship tech event.

Speaking to invited guests at the summit's Plenary session, Mr Heng said, “We welcome like-minded partners from the region and around the world to join us and collectively harness the next bound of technology for good."

Funded by NRF under Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 (RIE 2025) plan, NQS will see close to S$300 million being invested over five years. It is driven by the National Quantum Office (NQO), which serves as the Programme Office to manage and coordinate quantum RIE activities in Singapore. The NQO is hosted by the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), and supported by NRF. The NQO has developed the NQS under the guidance of the National Quantum Steering Committee.

There are four strategic thrusts under the NQS. They are:

• Scientific Excellence: to elevate the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) into a national centre
• Engineering Capabilities: to strengthen Singapore’s capabilities in quantum technologies and accelerate translation of quantum solutions
• Talent: to attract, develop and retain talent for industry and research through the National Quantum Scholarships Scheme (NQSS)
• Innovation & Enterprise Partnerships: to create a vibrant quantum industry, with the national-level programmes anchoring company partnerships and ecosystem development

CQT as a national centre

CQT was established in December 2007 as Singapore’s first Research Centre of Excellence (RCE) hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS). As the RCE scheme has a 15-year term, CQT received a S$20 million grant to begin its transition in December 2022.

Under the NQS, CQT will be elevated into a flagship national research centre to coordinate research talent across the country. The Centre will have nodes at A*STAR, NUS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). More nodes may be created in the future.

As a national centre, CQT will continue to enable investigator-led research. CQT will also train scientists and engineers undertaking PhD and Master-level degrees, including hosting students supported by the new NQSS.

NQO will roll out the NQSS in 2024 to attract talent to accelerate Singapore’s quantum R&D and build a quantum-ready workforce. The scheme will develop a pipeline of up to 100 PhD- and 100 Master-level talent over the next five years.

“Singapore has made a strong start in quantum technologies, and the National Quantum Strategy is a bold move to build on the momentum. I welcome that it supports the full breadth of research from scientific excellence to engineering. At the Centre for Quantum Technologies, we will spark ideas and foster talent. In the national-level quantum programmes, we will work with companies in fields from finance to biotech. Students taking up the new National Quantum Scholarships will be entering a fast-advancing field with many career paths," says CQT Director José Ignacio Latorre.

CQT’s Director is also Lead Principal Investigator of the National Quantum Computing Hub (NQCH) and will drive the National Quantum Processor Initiative (NQPI), a new programme being launched under the NQS.

Boosting and expanding capabilities

The NQPI will develop local capabilities for Singapore to design and build its own practical quantum processor(s). It will focus on the platforms of trapped ions and neutral atom arrays, with a targeted grant call for photonics and control electronics components.

The processors expected to result from this programme will be made accessible to researchers and collaborators through NQCH. This is on top of the access to superconducting quantum processors already planned at NQCH.

There will also be one other new national-level programme under NQS: the National Quantum Sensor Programme (NQSP). NQSP will focus on the areas of position, navigation and timing, biomedical sensing and imaging, and remote sensing. The NQS will also continue support for national-level quantum programmes launched in 2022 under the Quantum Engineering Programme.

The existing national-level programmes — NQCH, the National Quantum Federated Foundry (NQFF) and the National Quantum Safe Network (NQSN) — will enhance their capabilities in different ways:

• NQCH will strengthen its expertise in the use of quantum computing to support use cases in finance, drug discovery and development, and logistics.
• NQFF will own and operate fabrication tools essential to the design, fabrication and characterisation of critical quantum components and technologies, supporting the technical needs of the other programmes.
• NQSN will evolve into a testbed for continued scientific and engineering research in quantum communications by public and private sector end-users and complement the NQSN+ initiative under the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

These programmes also continue to be led by CQT researchers. CQT Principal Investigator Manas Mukherjee is Director of the NQFF and CQT Principal Investigator Alexander Ling leads the NQSN.

In addition to these programmes, the NQO will also launch thematic grant calls focusing on three main application areas — quantum communications and security, quantum processors, computation and simulation, and quantum sensing and metrology.

Ecosystem development

The national-level quantum programmes drive and anchor company partnerships to create a vibrant quantum industry in Singapore.

To further grow and develop the ecosystem, the NQO will support companies in the following ways: foster partnerships with the national-level quantum programmes and public agencies that could meet their quantum R&D needs; help companies develop a transition plan with the relevant research performer; develop a collaboration and business model for companies anchoring in Singapore; and collaborate on use-case development for quantum technologies.

More information about the National Quantum Strategy is available at the website of the National Quantum Office at nqo.sg

Selected media coverage:

• Channel News Asia - https://youtu.be/zDhSmnj37CI?si=hsx7xyugnc9Ux_dA
• The Straits Times - https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/s-pore-adds-another-300m-in-investment-to-develop-quantum-computers-talent-pool
• The Business Times - https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/startups-tech/startups/singapore-invest-about-s300-million-quantum-tech-research-and-talent
• Lianhe Zaobao -  https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/singapore/story20240531-3750862