Quantum Leap Africa (QLA) Features in WEF’s Quantum Economy Blueprint

During the recently concluded 53^rd World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, the Forum launched a Quantum Economy Blueprint, in collaboration with IBM and Sandbox AQ. This blueprint provides a framework for value-led, democratic access to quantum resources, extending the Quantum Computing Governance Principles into practice for regional or national strategies. The blueprint also serves as a guide for policy-makers, industry and academia to build a quantum ecosystem, focusing on economic growth, job creation and responsible development.

The global quantum effort leading to research and innovation in quantum science and technology is continually rising, with current worldwide public sector investments exceeding $39 billion. While a global ecosystem effort is needed to successfully develop and deploy quantum technologies, the current state of quantum efforts is concentrated in certain countries. Quantum technologies promise transformative impacts across industries, necessitating an equitable global distribution to avoid a quantum divide. The growing global quantum divide between countries with established quantum technology programs and those without will lead to significant imbalances in core areas such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing and more.

The impact of quantum technology (QT) will be far-reaching, potentially offering important opportunities across multiple industries, leading to advances in sectors such as healthcare, climate change, energy, communications, finance and others. It is possible to harness the principles of quantum physics for different applications, such as quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum communications and networking. There are significant technological developments and increases in funding every year. For example, quantum computing promises significant computational advances and the capability to solve problems that cannot be solved by classical computing alone. New quantum sensing technologies are being leveraged in diverse areas to deliver greater precision in measuring time, frequency, acceleration, temperature, rotation and magnetic and electric fields. This impacts multiple sectors of the economy and will unlock new industrial applications in healthcare, aerospace, electronics, geology, energy and many others. Quantum communications holds the promise of ultra-secure networking capabilities.

Purpose of the Quantum Economy Blueprint

This Quantum Economy Blueprint creates a roadmap across academia, industry and governments to support regions and countries in the development and commercialization of their quantum technology initiatives, and support and commercialize their quantum technology initiatives. It can therefore support policy-makers and government institutions, industry and academia with a blueprint for developing and growing a national quantum ecosystem. This blueprint can enable stakeholders to understand the potential for job creation, discover and accelerate areas for economic growth and protect their economic security, business integrity and citizens’ privacy. The purpose of the blueprint also extends to enabling participation in scientific advancements through the development of regional and national research strategies. Learning from existing strategies for the governance of quantum technologies contributes to ensuring the responsible and ethical development and use of such technologies. With the blueprint being a collaborative exercise based on sharing insights across sectors, regions and nations, it can contribute to spreading the benefits of the technology and related applications across regions, as well as spreading a spirit of open science and collaboration. Nations, regions and industry initiatives should look at the entire research, development and manufacturing roadmap for quantum hardware and software to understand where they can best contribute for societal benefit and the global acceleration of quantum for all

Theme 5: Workforce development

The goal of this theme is to build a quantum-literate workforce in key sectors of the economy, encompassing both quantum technologies and the adjacent professional sectors. Recognizing the escalating demand for quantum expertise, policy-makers should proactively augment the talent pipeline, addressing immediate and long-term needs while upholding principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. The integration of workforce development initiatives with public outreach endeavours is pivotal for fostering awareness across a broader population.

Our Lead Scientist for Quantum, Dr. Prince Osei, also a member of the Forum’s Quantum Economy Network, gave his contribution about the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)’s work in developing a Quantum workforce through QLA. “We realized as early as 2017 that Africa was behind the curve in understanding the need for quantum technologies, and the potential applications. In 2018, AIMS founded Quantum Leap Africa (QLA) to help prepare Africa for the future of quantum technology. One of the main components of QLA is devoted to quantum training and research, related to and anticipating powerful new QT, including quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensors, to develop experts in Africa who are ready to utilize the power of quantum technology for the benefit of Africa and humanity at large”, he said.

Conclusion

In the next phase of this initiative, WEF will create awareness building of the blueprint with policy-makers and senior industry experts via roundtables, conferences and webinars leveraging its global network of foremost experts across its Quantum Economy Network, Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network of Centres and Forum Partners.

More about the Quantum Blueprint can be found at https://www.weforum.org/publications/quantum-economy-blueprint/. And more about QLA at https://qla.aimsric.org/

All credit goes to the World Economic Forum