BRUSSELS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Monday held the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships event to stay at the forefront of the global race.
Andrus Ansip, vice-president of the Commission in charge of Digital Single Market, sang highly of the work that has been done on graphene and the Human Brain Project while giving a speech during the event.
Meanwhile, he attached great importance to quantum technologies. "The quantum project aims to turn Europe's excellent research results into industrial leadership," said he.
According to him, the ramp-up phase of the quantum project will start in 2018, covering the last three years of Horizon 2020. The the first quantum technologies Flagship Coordination and Support Action of the European Union (EU) will begin in January 2018.
Professor Jurgen Mlynek, chair of the Quantum technologies High-Level Steering Committee, said in his speech that what was new about quantum technologies was the second quantum revolution, which is mainly about manipulating and sensing individual particles, measuring and exploiting their properties.
By using quantum effects, devices and systems bring them into practical applications in communications, metrology and sensing, computing and simulation.
This can bring about security, precision and processing power and materials with new properties, delivering devices in very diverse application fields, such as ultra-precise synchronisation, guaranteed data privacy and unprecedented computing power.
Mlynek also emphasised that quantum technologies are not only for the academia, but also for the cooperation between academia and industry to create jobs and sharpen Europe's technology strengths.
The FET Flagships event was organised by the Commission in cooperation with the Estonian Presidency of the EU. Representatives from EU institutions, member states, academia and industry gathered here and discussed about how the FET Flagships can address science and technology challenges in the future.
