On February 17, 2017, during Malta’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Maltese government hosted the “Quantum Europe 2017: Towards the Quantum Technology Flagship” conference in cooperation with the European Commission. The event gathered approximately 150 participants and featured the handover of the Quantum Technology Flagship Intermediate Report from the High-Level Expert Group to the Commission.
Parliamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport Chris Agius opened the conference. According to coverage of the event, Agius noted the importance of quantum technology for next-generation computing and secure communications, and cited the growth of quantum research at the University of Malta in the fields of sensing, communication, and computation.
Several EU member states used the conference to announce national quantum technology initiatives. The Quantum Technology Flagship, a €1 billion initiative announced by the Commission, was at that time in its preparatory phase, with the first projects scheduled to begin in 2018. A QuantERA Proposers’ Day was also held in Malta the previous afternoon to support consortium-building for the network’s 2017 call for proposals.