The European Union has launched a Flagship on Quantum Technologies to promote research into and development of quantum technology throughout Europe. The EU will be investing a total of EUR 1 billion over the next ten years. Flagship programs are large, interdisciplinary European research initiatives. On 29 October 2018 at the Vienna Hofburg, the European Commission launched the flagship initiative and its approved component projects, each of which was previously reviewed in a highly competitive selection process. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is involved in two of these projects and will receive funding of about EUR 1.4 million.
Professor Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler's group is embedded in the QUANTUM – Quantum, Atomic, and Neutron Physics – research at the Institute of Physics at JGU and is involved in the construction of a quantum computer based on trapped ion crystals.
Professor Dmitry Budker's team MAM at HIM, also part of QUANTUM at the JGU Institute of Physics, is contributing to another Flagship project, which aims to establish quantum metrology techniques based on nitrogen vacancy centers in ultrapure diamonds!