Marco Blouin, General Director of Science and Partnerships, Ministry of Economy and Innovation (MEI), Government of Québec, Gave Keynote for “Quantum Policy and Funding” Vertical at IQT-NYC

(IQT-NYC) The Topic Sponsor Keynote of “Quantum Policy and Funding” May 20 was Marco Blouin — General Director of Science and Partnerships, Ministry of Economy and Innovation (MEI), Government of Québec.  He started by explaining, “The level of resources and talent available in Quebec for quantum technology is impressive.  Later he commented, “In quantum, we want to position ourselves as a world class leader. We have a long-term vision and try to have measurable achievements in short term.”

He explained that the “Province of Quebec has been in quantum technology from the start.” The mission of his group is to support business growth entrepreneurship and export-trade.  That’s quite large but covers the economy in Quebec.

Blouin said that 2019, we announced an investment of $100 M Canadian dollars for the next 6 years.
“We tried to cover items from research to commercialization.”  The plan is to  have organizations adopting quantum tech by 2030 with the goal of building a world class infrastructure.  They also wish to achieve lower error QC by 2030 also.

The Government of Québec also wants to transfer technology to local business and support startups. The area has expertise in several subjects: quantum materials. quantum information, quantum engineering, photons.

The ecosystem has a lot of stake holders working together to transfer to the real world. Research centers working with academy researchers and universities in the field are near commercialization hubs working with businesses.  We have investors and  VCs.

Blouin discussed the quantum technology hub in Montreal with AI.  He explained that “Montreal isa center of AI and the strategy is to work with the intelligence system.”

Blouin referenced the Quantum Institute at Sherbrooke University that has acquired investments of more than $80 million in last 10 years.  The Sherbroooke ecosystem provides:
–Training programs
–Access to IBM Q
–High Performance computing
–Quantum hardware protoypig and manufacturing
–Will have first bachelor’s program in quantum programming
–Investment in quantum hardware

In closing, Blouin suggested a review of the quebe.ca website.