Seeking a quantum leap
Universities and startups seek national technological plan
Agroup of universities and startups is calling for the federal government to implement a national quantum strategy to help the nascent sector grow in Canada, as the U. S., China and other countries invest billions in the technology.
A proposal before Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) seeks $460 million over five years for research projects, skills training, business- support programs and other measures, documents obtained by The Logic show.
Researchers, university administrators and executives say the country’s labs and firms have shown early promise in quantum, but need targeted policy and funding to commercialize discoveries and compete internationally.
“We’re talking about Canada holding very critical pieces of the quantum sector,” said Michele Mosca, a University of Waterloo (UW) professor and co-founder of its Institute for Quantum Computing.
Quantum technology could produce significantly more powerful computers and more perceptive sensors. But it could also crack the encryption protocols that currently keep information secure.
The University of British Columbia ( UBC), Université de Sherbrooke ( L’UDES) and UW championed the national quantum strategy proposal, delivered to ISED in December 2019. It is detailed in a memo prepared by the department’s science and research sector ahead of a January meeting between Will Amos, parliamentary secretary to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, and four university presidents, and obtained via access-to-information request.
The largest share of funding it seeks, $285 million, would pay for “large- scale research projects,” research infrastructure and new research chairs. It also wants $20 million for organizations, like the research non- profit Mitacs, that create industry placements for students. On the commercial side, the proposal calls for $115 million in capital for startups. That would include new quantum- specific streams for the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), Business Development Bank of Canada financing and further backing for the Creative Destruction Lab incubator.
Companies would also be able to bid on federal cybersecurity contracts, with $ 40 million for procurement as well as government research collaboration. And the consortium wants Ottawa to set up a new quantum advisory board to provide policy input.
The proposed quantum strategy would bring together academia and industry to “take on the medium- to long- range projects that not only help build out Canadian IP [ and] additional fundamental research results, but also our economic capabilities,” said Gail Murphy, UBC’S vice- president of research and innovation. Charmaine Dean, her UW counterpart, said the country has shown early strength in “quantum science and technology development,” and “a further commitment” from Ottawa to fund the initiative “would help retain Canada’s first-mover advantage in this field.” Citing the pandemic, the Liberals chose not to table the 2020 federal budget for which the consortium submitted its proposal; it had been expected for spring. But last month’s throne speech promised an economic and fiscal update later this fall.
where the hell’s our IP strategy? we’ve Invested a billion dollars in this.
The federal lobbyist registry shows ISED officials have communicated with representatives of UBC, UW and L’UDES a combined 25 times this year. “Over the past few years discussions have taken place with stakeholders on a range of subjects, including the idea of a quantum strategy,” said Bains spokesperson John Power. He declined to comment on whether the government planned to implement the December 2019 proposal.
The federal government has put almost $1 billion into quantum science since 2009 through academic granting agencies and business- support programs, while startups have raised a further US$ 243 million in venture capital in “recent years,” the memo states. The proposal’s three university champions have received a combined $ 176.3 million through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, a large- project program, the next cycle of which is scheduled for the 2021– 2022 fiscal year. Other governments are also allocating large sums. The European Union launched a € 1- billion program in October 2018. Two months later, U. S. President Donald
Trump signed the National Quantum Initiative Act (NQIA), setting aside US$1.2 billion over five years for new research centres and projects, as well as a new coordination office within the executive branch. The Chinese government is reportedly spending billions on quantum science and infrastructure.
The strategy’s proponents say they’re not worried about being outspent. Dollar- for- dollar comparisons don’t account for the differences in research- and innovation- funding systems between countries, said Murphy, adding that the sector’s size and capacity to absorb funding was factored into the proposal’s numbers and programs. Canada can compete if it focuses resources on fields in which it already has a strong research and startup base, according to Mosca, who cited software and applications, cr yptography, computing and sensing. Still, other governments are doing more to help the sector grow, according to some executives, who echoed longstanding concerns among innovation- economy stakeholders about a lack of policy to support the commercialization of novel ideas and adoption of new technology. “If you create a lot of research in universities and then it gets all exported out to other foreign jurisdictions, there’s not a big return for the Canadian taxpayer,” said Sally Daub, managing partner of VC firm Pool Global Partners, suggesting that the federal government incentivize or mandate telecommunications and financial- services firms to use the technology.
Semiconductors provide a cautionary tale, according to Daub, who previously started VIXS Systems, a Toronto-based firm that posted US$ 38.4 million in revenue the fiscal year before she stepped down as CEO in February 2015. “We didn’t have the capital to fund the companies here, and we didn’t have the industry support,” she said, noting that across the border, cable companies and the military had backed U.S. chipmakers.
Ottawa has made commitments to other promising technologies similar to the one proposed by the quantum consortium, albeit smaller. The 2017 federal budget allocated $ 125 million for a Pan- Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which funded new research chairs, and in May 2019, Bains announced a 13-member advisory council.
Mosca said any national quantum strategy Ottawa adopts should focus on economic outcomes and commercialization, not simply increasing funding for undirected research. “Where the hell’s our IP strategy?” he asked. “We’ve invested a billion dollars in this, and the IP [ approach] is, Everybody just do what you want.” Mosca, who’s also CEO of cybersecurity consultancy Evolutionq , patents his own discoveries. Ottawa did launch a national IP strategy in April 2018. It’s promising a team of advisers to help companies write IP plans, and has updated the Patent Act in an attempt to deter trolls. Last week, the Council of Canadian Innovators, a tech lobby group, criticized the initiative’s rollout.
The IP strategy is one of several Liberal government programs that support quantum startups, said Bains’s spokesperson Power, who also cited the IRAP, the Innovative Solutions Canada procurement program, and the digital and AI superclusters. Both Power and UW’S Dean noted that Canada ranks third globally for quantum computing patents. Executives say the government also needs to take more seriously the security risks the technology creates. “Quantum computing threatens to break much of the cryptography we currently use,” the federal Communications Security Establishment’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security notes. U.S. Representative Will Hurd has claimed the Russian and Chinese governments are currently breaching government and industry systems to stockpile data until a future quantum computer can read it.
Paul Lucier, vice- president of sales and business development at Waterloo, Ont.- based cryptography firm Isara, said he’s met with at least two dozen members of Congress, including Hurd, and with senior Pentagon officials about the quantum threat. But Canadian policymakers haven’t shown the same interest. “We’re doing a project with the U. S. Army right now — they’re spending money with us,” he said. “I can’t get the Canadian government to give us a [commercial] project.”
Lucier wants Ottawa to emulate the U. S. approach of combining “positive quantum” with preparations for the technology’s potential negative security consequences. In April 2019, the SIF awarded Isara $ 7.2 million, part of a $ 41- million quantum package. Proponents of the quantum strategy proposal say Ottawa has been receptive. “I don’t think anybody would ever try to presume what the government will say or not say in a budget,” said UBC’S Murphy. “But they’ve been very engaged in listening to the scientists [ and] industry folks … and in understanding [ the] potential of the technology.”
i can’t get the canadian government to give us a project.