A consortium of four Czech university institutions announced a project to build a national quantum communication infrastructure with cross-border connections to Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland. According to the Czech Technical University in Prague, the consortium comprises the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of CTU, the Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University, the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Palacky University in Olomouc, and IT4Innovations of the VSB – Technical University of Ostrava.
From its inception, the infrastructure was planned to connect organizations providing critical state services, including the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB), the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defence, the Railway Administration, both Czech nuclear power plants, key hospitals, and other selected institutions. CTU Rector Vojtech Petracek described it as “by far the most comprehensive project in quantum communication in the Czech Republic.”
Prof. Igor Jex, Dean of CTU’s FJFI, noted that the project formed part of the broader EuroQCI initiative involving 25 EU member states. The stated goal was to create an extremely secure communication network based on quantum key distribution (QKD) connecting critical national and European infrastructure institutions after 2027.