Since 2020, the PlanQK research project has been setting standards in establishing a community around the industrial use of quantum software in Germany and beyond. More than 30 use cases from the fields of quantum-based machine learning, simulation and optimization are the basis for its success – this claim is now also reinforced by the updated name: Platform and Ecosystem for Quantum Applications.
Over 100 partners, including 19 consortium partners, are already part of the PlanQK community. The beginnings of this community were laid in 2019 through funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as part of the AI Innovation Competition, of which PlanQK is a lighthouse project. Use cases for the application of quantum computers to quantum machine learning were identified and explored, but also in the areas of quantum simulation and quantum-based optimization. During the consortium’s research work, the demand for supporting all types of quantum applications became increasingly clearer and was ultimately satisfied with a knowledge platform for researchers and developers as well as a service platform for distribution, operation, and utilization of quantum applications. Due to the increased funding of the federal government for quantum software and technologies, this ambition was then also formally supported from 2021 onwards with further funding from the Corona aid package for the PlanQK consortium – both on the level of the use cases and on the level of the underlying PlanQK platform. With the name change now decided and published, PlanQK stands for an open collaboration with further research projects and industrial partners to enable the use of quantum applications for organizations of all sizes – also beyond Germany.
David Niehaus, PlanQK Community Manager, says: „PlanQK has become a fixture in the German and European vernacular for the use of quantum software. We are grateful for the support of our ambitious goals by the funding of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, as well as all partners from the PlanQK community. With the new name, we carry our claim of broad-based collaboration, already practiced for over a year, even better into the broader community of research projects, startups, SMEs, large companies and industry associations around the development and use of quantum software.“