Slovakia has made significant advances both in science and technology and its economic development. The government's 2011-2013 innovation policy concentrates on increasing collaboration between the private and public sector for encouraging science education and innovation. The Slovak Academy of Sciences is supporting a wide range of projects, including those in the quantum field.
The Slovak Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics is coordinating Quie2t (Quantum information entanglement-enabled technologies), a project in quantum computing and quantum information. As part of the project, a sustainable pan-European research architecture focusing on quantum technologies and quantum information foundations is being set up. Partners from the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland are participating in the project.
Four virtual institutes concentrating on quantum technologies, quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum information sciences are to be established. Slovakia’s initiative intends to achieve progress in the field of quantum information sciences that will lead to comparatively higher level of communication systems and computers. Theoretically, a quantum computer can solve problems within seconds which will take billions of years for current computers to solve.
The Q-Essence (Quantum interfaces, sensors and communication based on entanglement) project involves development of protocols, components, interfaces and architectures for constructing entanglement-enhanced and entanglement-enabled ICT devices, which include quantum random-number generators, quantum sensors and atomic clocks. The researchers are also studying new distributed quantum information protocols designed for ensuring multiuser security, privacy-protection and trust. New physical-layer architectures that are required for long-distance quantum communication are also being studied.
The Quie2t and the Q-Essence projects are supported by the European Seventh Framework Programme for research.