Open Call 1/2025 for Academic Projects for the VTT Q50 Quantum Computer

The first Call for access to the VTT Q50 quantum computer is now open for users from Finnish higher-education institutions and research institutes. This marks a significant boost for the Finnish Quantum-Computing Infrastructure FiQCI, maintained and developed by VTT, CSC, and Aalto University. VTT Q50, the Finnish quantum computer operated by VTT is accessible through the LUMI supercomputer environment, provided by CSC.

Through this Call, accepted projects will get access to a true hybrid high-performance computing / quantum computing (HPC+QC) environment, with a quantum computing resource that exceeds the capacity of full emulation on supercomputers.

This opens exciting avenues in both software development and end-user applications. For a software development perspective, this setup enables the development of, for example, quantum-classical hybrid algorithms, error mitigation techniques, and quantum compilers that optimise circuit execution based on real hardware features.

For end-users, applications such as quantum-enhanced optimisation, simulation of molecular systems and materials science, and machine learning acceleration through hybrid quantum-classical AI models becomes possible.

The LUMI HPC backbone ensures that computationally demanding pre- and post-processing tasks can be seamlessly incorporated. Thus, quantum computing becomes a practical enhancement to supercomputing, and vice versa. The update to the FiQCI infrastructure creates a unique environment across classical, quantum, and hybrid HPC+QC software solutions.

With the addition of the VTT Q50 quantum computer to FiQCI, also parallel quantum computing directly within a supercomputer environment can be explored.

Timeline of Call

• 4 Mar 2025 Call opens
• 1 Apr 2025 Call closes
• 15 Apr 2025 (tentative) Outcome communicated

How to apply

Access to the VTT Q50 machine is organised through regular Calls, of which this is the first one. Calls will be announced four times per year.

The deadline for Call 1/2025 is 1 April 2025. Proposals will be evaluated within FiQCI as soon as possible after the deadline. The results will be communicated to all applicants after decision. The expected duration of the projects is one year.

Proposal will be evaluated based on scientific merit, feasibility, and computational resource justification.

The application form is available here: Application form for FiQCI / VTT Q50 Academic Project 1/2025

Please fill in all the applicable fields in the application form, including abstract, key scientific/societal/technological contribution, justification for the importance, and references.

Requested computing time

Carefully estimate the total need of computational resources required for your project!

As a guideline, execution of a single circuit, using 10.000 shots consumes roughly 10 QPU-seconds. Initialisation time for each circuit, included in this estimate, is roughly 4 seconds. The execution time will naturally depend on the exact circuit being executed.

The amount of resources applied for should be justified in the application. We acknowledge that this will be a rather approximate exercise, when practical experience on using the system is still scarce. Note that the total available QPU time available per Call is 20-30 QPU-hours, and we expect to grant resources to several projects.

The following example resource application serves as a guideline; both smaller and larger resources can be granted based on the application. In addition to QPU resources, it is mandatory to apply also for classical resources in at least one category (CPU or GPU). Also storage resources are required. For example, 10.000 TiBh corresponds to storing on average roughly 1 Terabyte of data for a year.

Resource allocation example:

• VTT Q50 QPU hours: 2
• LUMI CPU-core hours (in thousands of CPUh): 4
• LUMI GPU-core hours (in thousands of GPUh): 0
• LUMI Storage TiB hours (in thousands of TiBh): 10

Terms of Use

Accepted Projects must accept the Terms of Use for both the LUMI supercomputing environment and the VTT Q50 system. Full Terms of Use will be communicated to the Principal Investigators before start of the projects.

The main restrictions are:

• Only academic research purposes are eligible
• Use is restricted to users affiliated with a Finnish University, University of Applied Sciences, a state-owned research institute, or the National Archives of Finland
• No commercial purposes are allowed
• No sensitive or specific category data can be handled
• Access is allowed only from within Finland

Acknowledgement

When publishing the results that utilise VTT Q50, users have to acknowledge the use of VTT Quantum and FiQCI, preferably in the format:

• “These [results] have been acquired by VTT’s quantum computer VTT Quantum.”. Users should use “VTT Q50” when referring to the quantum computer.
• “The authors acknowledge the use of the Finnish Quantum-Computing Infrastructure FiQCI.”

Questions and clarifications.

Please direct any and all questions regarding the Call to fiqci-feedback@postit.csc.fi. We are happy to help!