The Neutral-Atom Platform Technologies call for proposals from the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), part of Horizon Europe, supports a project to advance the maturity and usability of neutral-atom quantum processor platforms with a focus on practical applications. It should include the following and more:
- Development and deployment of scalable quantum processors with individually addressable neutral atoms, supporting analogue simulation operation, hybrid analogue-digital techniques and gate-based quantum computing.
- Demonstration of real-world use cases (minimum two), addressing complex scientific or industrial problems (e.g., materials science, chemistry, optimization) that are intractable for classical simulation/computing. These should include benchmarking and verification strategies to assess quantum advantage.
- Development and integration of a complete software stack including quantum control systems, electronic control components, user programming interfaces, classical simulation support tools, and robust operation protocols.
- Cloud-based access to the quantum processor, ensuring usability by researchers and industrial users across Europe. The system should allow for hybrid quantum-classical workflows with HPC environments and support non-expert users to the extent possible.
- Implementation of robust quantum error mitigation, error correction, error detection and quantification techniques adapted to neutral-atom processors.
Applications are open to collaborative teams with a minimum of 3 independent organizations (public or private), each established in a different EU Member State or Associated Country to the Horizon Europe Programme. Activities are expected to validate technologies starting at TRL 4 and confirm their progression to TRL 7 by the end of the project.
This is a Research and Innovation Action grant, and the funding provides up to 20 million EUR to 1 project, up to 50% of the project costs.
Funding call: HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-NAPT-11-01
Applications close on November 17, 2026.
