January 23, 2023
During a two-day meeting at the Hellenic Ministry of Digital Governance, the new project Hellas QCI – Deploying advanced national QCI systems and networks in Greece kicked-off on 19 and 20 January 2023 with the participation of NCSR Demokritos representatives.
The Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications participates in the project with the eHealth & Knowledge Management Unit of the Computational Intelligence Laboratory (CIL) along with with 13 more partners in the HellasQCI project which is part of EuroQCI, aiming to upgrade the security of sensitive data and critical infrastructure through the design and implementation of national and European quantum communication infrastructure networks. In this framework, the project will run a series of use cases and trainings for technicians, researchers and end-users.
Mr. Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of State & Digital Governance and Dr. Athanasios Staveris, Secretary General of Telecommunications & Post at the Ministry of Digital Governance welcomed the partners. Dr. Ilias Papastamatiou, Senior Project Manager at GRNET and coordinator of HellasQCI gave a comprehensive overview of the project and the steps to be taken.
Dr. Papastamatiou, HellasQCI project coordinator
Dr. Homer Papadopoulos, eHealth & Knowledge Management Unit, at the panel of the HellasQCI project
Dr. George Nounesis, Director and Chairman of the Board at NCSR Demokritos and Dr. Homer Papadopoulos, eHealth & Knowledge Management UnitC, CIL, scientific coordinator of the project represented NCSR Demokritos at the kick off meeting (KOM).
HELLAS QCI partners at the KOM meeting
HellasQCI project aims to deploy advanced National QCI systems and networks. Its architecture comprises of three metropolitan test-sites located at major cities of Greece namely: ΗellasQCI-Central (Athens), HellasQCI-North (Thessaloniki) and HellasQCI-South (Heraklion-Crete). Each test – site is divided into Governmental and Industrial testbeds, which allow the project to investigate the field-deployment of QKD technologies in a plethora of realistic scenarios and use cases addressing National Security, Public Health, Critical Infrastructure and ICT sector. An additional Educational testbed will allow the development of new quantum technologies, provide a sandpit for SME innovation, and offer Greece a futureproof extension towards Quantum Internet. It will also serve as a comprehensive training environment for technical, research staff and end users. For inter-test-site links and international connection with other EuroQCI members, HellasQCI will exploit three Greek observatories, which constitute a national asset and have been selected by ESA to be upgraded as Optical Ground Stations with QKD capabilities. The aim of HellasQCI is also to create a community from all interested national stakeholders, gather expertise and share knowhow on the application of quantum technologies.
The partnership consists of 14 partners from three countries:
1) National Infrastructures for Reaseasrch and Technology – GRNET (coordinator – Greece)
2) Ministry of Digital Governance (Greece)
3) National Capodistrian University of Athens (Greece)
4) Foundation for Research and Technology – FORTH (Greece)
5) National Centre of Scientific Research Demokritos – NCSRD (Greece)
6) Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – AUTH (Greece)
7) Qubitech Private Capital Company – QUBI (Greece)
8) Cosmote (Greece)
9) Space (Greece)
10) National Observatory of Athens (Greece)
11) Motor Oil (Greece)
12) Institute of Communication and Computer Systems – ICCS (Greece)
13) University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
14) South East Technological University – WIT (Ireland)
There will also be a collaboration between Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, Cyprus, Poland and Bulgaria for the exchange of technical know-how and best practices
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