Unitary Fund, through its French subsidiary, has secured a three-year grant as part of the QLASS project, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe program. The project, which received €6 million ($6.26M USD) in total, allocated €680,000 ($709K USD) to Unitary Fund France to lead software development efforts.
The QLASS project focuses on developing quantum glass-based photonic integrated circuits and related software for quantum computing. Unitary Fund will design an end-to-end compilation stack, adapting algorithms to work with photonic hardware developed by consortium partners. Leveraging expertise in open-source quantum software, Unitary Fund will integrate algorithm design, simulation, compilation, and error mitigation into a seamless framework.
Coordinated by Dr. Giulia Acconcia of the Polytechnic University of Milan, QLASS brings together research institutions and industry leaders from Italy, France, and Germany. Partners include Politecnico di Milano, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Pixel Photonics, Schott AG, and more. The project also explores practical applications, such as algorithms for next-generation lithium-ion battery design.
Unitary Fund’s contribution builds on its experience with projects like Mitiq, an open-source toolkit for practical quantum error mitigation, and compiler innovations for ion-trap and superconducting quantum devices. This marks its first focus on photonics-based quantum processing units, expanding its expertise across quantum hardware platforms.
For more information, explore the QLASS press release here and the Unitary Fund announcement here.
December 27, 2024
