Israel, Switzerland and UK face exclusion from major EU quantum
Brussels is preparing to exclude researchers based in the UK, Israel and Switzerland from major quantum and space research projects, in a significant step that researchers and officials warn could have broad implications for science collaboration across Europe.
According to the latest draft plans for Horizon Europe,
restrictions will be placed on the EU’s closest research partners in several
quantum and space competitions. Until now, these projects were open to the
association countries, which have negotiated access to EU research programmes.
The proposed move, which came from the European Commission
and is now under discussion by member states, was greeted with dismay and
sadness from researchers and officials, who said curbs would hurt all of
Europe.
“Everyone’s shocked; we’ve never seen anything like this.
This is not good for us, not good for the field, and not good for the EU,” said
Klaus Ensslin, professor of solid-state physics at ETH Zurich.
The draft text argues that the move is necessary so the EU
can protect its research base in rapidly developing fields. The language
highlights just how much the EU’s thinking has shifted when it comes to
striking the balance between research collaboration and competitive interests.
The proposal would see fewer resources in key scientific areas go to associate
countries, and more resources dedicated to developing these sectors at home.
“There have been certain indications that something like
this had been building up. But this was quite dramatic,” said Nadav Katz, a
quantum physicist who runs the Quantum Coherence Lab at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. “This is not in Europe’s interest,” he said.
Israel is one of over a dozen non-EU states that along with
Switzerland and the UK, is expected to be formally involved as a fee-paying
associate member of the seven-year Horizon Europe, which starts issuing grants
in the coming months.
Katz, whose research focuses on superconducting devices for
quantum computers, said there are up to 20 quantum projects running in Israel
that involve EU partners and funding.
“The EU has been very wise to include neighbouring countries
in its research programmes over the years. Pushing them away is not good
policy. These are countries that give more than they take,” said Katz. “The
European landscape will be greyer and dimmer without their participation.”
The proposed curbs would leave Switzerland and Israel with
less privileged access to Horizon Europe than they have had in past R&D
programmes. For the UK, too, which formally left the bloc at the end of last
year, the move would see a big downgrade of its role in key EU projects.
Ending cooperation in key quantum and space research would
also see the EU take a hit, as its universities and labs lose vital partners,
researchers warned.
“Friends need to stick together; otherwise, you end up
alone,” said Tal David, head of the Israel National Quantum Initiative.
The European Commission did not respond to a request for
comment.
Nobody expected this
Researchers involved in the EU’s multi-billion Quantum
Technologies Flagship, which is funded by Horizon 2020, were blindsided by the
exclusions, which appeared for the first time in a draft that circulated last
week.
“It was a big
surprise,” said Tommaso Calarco, a theoretical physicist at the Helmholtz
Centre in Jülich, Germany. Calarco is one of the leading forces behind the EU
quantum programme that aims, among other objectives, to develop quantum
computers that are exponentially more powerful than today’s supercomputers.
“Nobody expected this,” Calarco said. “It’s sad that things
are working like this, because science is without borders.”
The three directly affected countries, Israel, Switzerland
and the UK, carry considerable scientific heft, as demonstrated by how their
researchers excel in highly competitive EU programmes, Calarco noted. They are
also among the biggest investors in quantum research in Europe. “If [the plan]
stays as it is, we need some serious contingency plans,” he said.
Officials from the EU’s big neighbouring players are
fighting to ensure their researchers do not lose out, and are expected to raise
their concerns with government representatives ahead of a key Horizon Europe
meeting later this month.
Barring these countries “would be a particularly
disappointing development,” said John Morton, director of University College
London’s Quantum Science and Technology Institute.
The real battle is not between states but “against the laws
of physics; in overcoming the significant scientific and technical challenges
that will allow these technologies to achieve their enormous potential,” Morton
said. Long term, researchers hope to apply quantum physics to build highly
sensitive instruments and machines with calculation capacities far beyond those
of the most powerful current supercomputers.
“It’s not clear how [barriers] serve the interest of the EU
member states,” said Morton. “It is difficult to see how such measures can
increase the expected return on investment to member states in capturing the
value of emerging quantum technology. Indeed, it seems more likely to achieve
the opposite.”
What the text says
The proposed new eligibility rules includes restrictions on
who can join a project on, for example, quantum computers, described in the
text as an “emerging technology of global strategic importance”.
“In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard
the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security, namely,
participation is limited to legal entities established in member states,
Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein. Proposals including entities established in
countries outside this scope will be ineligible,” the draft says.
In addition, the text says that legal entities established
in a member state or in countries associated to Horizon Europe, such as Norway,
“that are directly or indirectly controlled by third countries not associated
to Horizon Europe or by legal entities of non-associated third countries, are
not eligible to participate.”
The text defends these restrictions, saying the goal is to
“make independent European capacities in developing and producing quantum
computing technologies of strategic importance for future computing capacities
and applications in security and dual-use technologies.”
Similar restrictions appear for other hot-button quantum
topics, including simulation, communications, and sensing projects.
There are also strict limits proposed for non-EU
participation in space projects, such as satellite communication and
transportation systems and space launchers.
According to the text, “In order to…avoid EU dependence on
components, materials, processes from non-EU countries and the risk of access
restrictions for such items e.g. through export control regulations,
participation is limited to legal entities established in member states only.”
A disclaimer on the front of the document states that the
proposals are “the preliminary views of the Commission services and may not in
any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the
Commission.”
As a member country of the European Space Agency, it is
“crazy” to talk about excluding Switzerland from space projects, said Olivier
Küttel, head of international affairs at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Lausanne. “Scientifically speaking, none of this makes any sense.
It’s a pity; the EU is growing more focused on itself, I feel. We are stuck in
some politics that limits all our potential.”
Bad precedent
Officials in Brussels say there are several considerations
behind the proposed exclusions, with the main one being that quantum and space
are expected to become increasingly important elements of national security.
However, researchers fear these bans will set a bad
precedent that may be used to justify further research barriers between the EU
and its neighbours.
“Today, it’s quantum and space. Tomorrow you will be talking
about artificial intelligence and who knows what else,” David said.
Calarco is calling for member states to negotiate a deal
that keeps associate countries in all quantum topics. “This is all happening
above our heads and we don’t have much information on it. We understand it’s
bigger than us, but I still would like to hope that this can be fixed,” he
said.
Scientists said access to the quantum flagship is so
important that any partial exclusion for Israel, Switzerland and the UK would
see the EU as a whole drop out of the top tier of quantum research. The
programme, which launched in 2018, will provide funding for the next 10 years.
The project has distributed €150 million in grants so far, with over €1 billion
still to spend over the next seven years.
“This is potentially a major blow to quantum research in
Switzerland, but also to UK and Israeli researchers,” said Ensslin.
“Actually, I would say that it is a blow also to European
quantum research since exactly these three countries are particularly strong in
quantum. If [the EU] were to kick these groups out, the European quantum effort
would become severely weaker.”
A joint statement by Ian Walmsley, provost and chair of
experimental physics at Imperial College London, and Kai Bongs, professor of
physics and astronomy at Birmingham University, underlined the importance of
continued access for the UK.
“As part of the EU, the networks and collaborations that UK
researchers and companies established, as well as the training programmes and
the exchange of people, have been crucial in growing the national and European
capabilities in this area. It would be a pity to discard the strengths that
these have provided both sets of nations,” they said.
Bongs is principal investigator at the UK Quantum Technology
Hub for Sensors and Timing, overseeing the development of gravity sensors or
gravimeters that are predicted to be twice as sensitive and 10 times as fast as
current equipment. Speaking to Science|Business last month, he shared his fear
that, “Europe is not quite as open to the UK as it used to be.”
Now, he and Walmsley say whatever the outcome on Horizon
Europe, they expect global companies would “continue to collaborate both with
us and our EU colleagues.” It would therefore be at best inefficient to erect a
barrier for direct collaboration between researchers, while having them each collaborate
with the same industry partners, they added.
“A critical mass of activity is needed to make progress, and
Europe has this. Fragmenting the strong connections we have scientifically with
the EU would be detrimental to both UK and the EU research and innovation in
the face of very stiff international competition,” Bongs and Walmsley said.
Strategic autonomy
If some member state officials were taken aback by the
strict proposals, others said that the political mood had been threatening a
move like this for some time.
Even before the pandemic added new elements of uncertainty
and massive spending deficits, the main political message heard for several
years is that the EU has to fend more for itself.
In particular, since Donald Trump entered office with his
hostility for the EU, leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron have been
pushing for what he has called European “strategic autonomy,” the ability to
defend Europe and act militarily in its neighbourhood without so much reliance
on others.
To this end, quantum applications are viewed in Brussels as
huge economic and military opportunities but also as significant threats, not
least to critical EU assets like the Galileo and Copernicus satellite systems
which may one day have to stand up to quantum-based attacks.
“I’m not really surprised [by the proposed exclusion] from a
political point of view,” said Tilman Esslinger, a German experimental
physicist and a professor at the Institute for Quantum Electronics at ETH
Zurich. “Clearly quantum has gained geopolitical importance. It’s today’s moon
landing. If you can master it, you demonstrate to the world that you can master
any technology.”
Last year, the EU’s director general for research, Jean-Eric
Paquet, said the EU would be more selective about research partners for Horizon
Europe. “The DNA of [the Horizon programme] does not change. Cooperation in
science is a no-brainer for us. At the same time, the world is deeply changing
and we need to revisit the way this is done in practice,” he said.
The EU will become more “specific, nuanced” on how “we open
our programmes to the world,” Paquet said.
Following these remarks, EU research ministers agreed to
more aggressively police foreign participation in the science programme, adding
a new provision analysts say was aimed primarily at preventing China and the US
from getting access to sensitive European research.
Toughened legislation allows Brussels to limit or block a
far wider array of entities from participating in Horizon Europe, as Europe
tries to prevent rivals from gaining an edge in industries projected to power
the economy of the future. The EU promised to exercise this power for “duly
justified and exceptional reasons.”
Still, it has come as a shock to see how broadly the
Commission may be willing to apply its new authority.
One interpretation, shared anonymously by a non-EU official,
is that the trauma of Brexit has created a great power game between the EU and
UK, with collateral damage for Israel, Switzerland and other non-EU countries.
Whatever lies behind the EU restrictions, the signals from
Brussels have changed in recent years, said David. “Our influence on decision
making in Europe has always been limited, which is to be expected, we’re not a
member state. But in the past year or so, it has become [even] more limited I
feel,” he said.
Quantum research is becoming more difficult to collaborate
on around the world, David added. The US is talking about export controls for
the technology, for fear it may be helpful to other countries’ military or
commercial companies; there are similar noises in China about stopping its
quantum knowhow going overseas.
Israel recently unveiled plans to increase its funding for
the field, with a €300 million programme running to 2025. David says the
country is not thinking about putting barriers around this funding. “Europeans
are coming to us, interested to get funding from our programme,” he said.
He called research collaboration a “tremendous” mutual
benefit for Israel and the EU. “This connection is very important to maintain
because the [quantum] community is small enough, and the challenges are
significant enough, that you cannot really do it without collaboration,” he
said.
The large majority of joint work on quantum remains in early
stage research, which is not classified or categorised as a deemed export.
“We’re closer to basic science than field-ready projects, so there’s no reason,
really, to limit collaboration now,” David said.
He thinks some officials may be “blinded by the hype” of the
field. “There’s great promise but it’s too soon to be talking about science
fiction-grade security threats,” he said. “Many quantum projects are not
security-related, anyway. Quantum sensing, for example, there’s a lot of
civilian applications here.” These include sensors to measure volcano activity,
and tools to detect degenerative diseases.
Katz said there is no risk of intellectual secrets escaping,
if this was something worrying officials in Brussels. “We’re law abiding
countries, if there’s IP [intellectual property] protection, we abide by it,”
he said.
“It’s overall a really good personal connection we have with
EU partners. We definitely see ourselves as part of the community. But
ultimately, if we don’t work with Europe, we will work with someone else,” he
added.
Excluding Europeans
If EU officials are worried about losing researchers to the
UK or to Switzerland, the answer is to increase national funding across the
bloc, said Esslinger.
“Researchers would love to study in all these great EU
countries but often times, the positions aren’t available. That’s why a lot of
people went to Britain originally to do quantum,” he said.
Talent cultivated in the EU’s neighbour states ultimately
bolsters the bloc’s economy anyway, Esslinger said. “Probably the leading
course on quantum engineering in the world is here, at ETH. We train PhDs, some
stay, and many leave back to their home countries. That is to the benefit of
Europe.”
“If the EU goes through with these restrictions, they will
be excluding many Europeans. I’m from Germany. We are all international
researchers,” said Esslinger. “So I am, frankly speaking, sad for European
research, which had been so successful in quantum in the last 20 years.”
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