The Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, the President of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, during the event
The Government is supporting its deployment and connection to the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) with €8.1 million via the Quantum Spain project, an initiative of the ministry through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence that aims to develop a solid quantum computing infrastructure in Spain.
The Government's support will allow this computer, which has been at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-National Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS) since September 2024, to be integrated into the BSC's MareNostrum5 supercomputer and the rest of the RES, enabling Spanish research groups and industrial sectors to use its powerful processing capabilities (far superior to those of conventional computers) for experimentation and product and application development.
This milestone coincides with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, proclaimed by the UN, and with the Government's ongoing work on the National Quantum Technologies Strategy, which will be presented shortly.
"Until now, access to quantum computing has been provided mostly by tech giants, with limited options and high prices. Now, Spain is making it available to academia, industry and the public sector, eliminating barriers to innovation," said Minister López at the presentation. "Quantum computing has the potential for extraordinary breakthroughs in such important fields as disease prediction, air traffic optimisation, ultra-secure communications and the development of new drugs and materials".
For his part, Morant celebrated this milestone with a Spanish stamp that is at the service of all of society to promote technological autonomy in our country and in Europe. "We are taking a decisive step towards consolidating Spain's leadership in quantum research, the future of computing," he said.
The minister also stressed the Government's commitment to public leadership of the most disruptive technologies, and those that carry the greatest financial risk and have the greatest impact on economic and social development, as well as the commitment of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, to which it has contributed more than €170 million in the last five years, an amount greater than the total allocated over the previous 15 years (€130 million).
The BSC-CNS coordinates the RES, which is made up of 14 nodes located in different universities and research institutions throughout Spain. It has been chosen by the European Commission as one of the seven AI Factories of the EU. Its MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, the 11th most powerful on the planet, has been used - among many other projects - for the development of ALIA, the first Artificial Intelligence language model with an important component in Spanish and other co-official languages, published last January.
Innovation in the Free Trade Zone
During his official visit to Barcelona, the minister also took part in the opening of the conference "Dynamics of innovation: challenges and solutions for industry", within the framework of the DFactory initiative, launched by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) for the promotion and development of Industry 4.0.
In his speech, López stressed the importance of public-private collaboration in industrial matters, highlighting the role of the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), "a 'fund of funds' aimed at promoting investments in disruptive and high added value technologies, which has €16 billion to finance impact initiatives and is currently looking for strategic co-investment projects", encouraging innovative companies to take an interest in this initiative.
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