MSCA-backed QuBriC brings Alice & Bob into Europe’s quantum error correction push
Tech.eu Cate Lawrence
Europe just added Alice & Bob to a quantum error-correction PhD network. The bet is that better-trained researchers could speed up fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Cate Lawrence — read the original for the full story.
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Europe’s first MSCA doctoral network focused on quantum error correction just got bigger. Alice & Bob, the Paris-based scaleup known for cat-qubit work, has joined QuBriC, a project that already links 16 universities and seven quantum companies across the continent.
The network is built to train 15 doctoral researchers over 48 months, with €4.6 million coming from Horizon Europe’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme. That funding buys more than lab time. It’s meant to produce people who can move across the whole quantum error-correction stack, from theory and algorithms to hardware implementation.
That matters because QEC is one of the nastiest bottlenecks in quantum computing. The field still splits along disciplinary lines: some people know coding theory, others know quantum physics, and the work needs both. QuBriC is trying to close that gap by having researchers work across academic and industrial settings, rather than staying boxed into one lane.
Alice & Bob’s role is straightforward and useful. The company will help shape research and training while contributing its own expertise in cat-qubit-based error correction. For a startup trying to build the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer, that also creates a pipeline into the kind of talent it needs.
The timing fits the broader MSCA pitch. The programme is marking 30 years, says it has supported more than 150,000 researchers, and counts 23 Nobel Prize winners among them. In this case, the sell is less ceremonial and more practical: if Europe wants useful quantum computers, it needs people who can talk to both the physicists and the engineers without a translator in between.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the part of European quantum policy that actually makes sense: fund the people, not just the press releases. Quantum error correction is painfully unglamorous, which is exactly why it keeps getting treated like background noise until the hardware bill arrives. Alice & Bob joining the network is a sensible move, and a rare reminder that training specialists beats cheering for miracles.
Read more about this at: Tech.eu
