August 15, 2025 -- A project led by Tampere University, called TeleQuant, has been awarded €780,000 in funding through Business Finland’s Rise to the Challenge call, which supports groundbreaking research ideas. The project brings together leading Finnish research institutions with expertise in photonics, semiconductor and superconductor technologies to pioneer fiber-compatible quantum communication. The goal is to strengthen Finland’s data resilience and technological independence in the quantum era.
Quantum computers will soon be able to break the classical data encryption protocols currently used in data communication. At the national level, it is crucial to implement quantum-secure communication networks for the transfer of sensitive information and to achieve hardware self-sufficiency.

“The TeleQuant project aims to enhance the resilience of Finnish telecommunications and improve our self-sufficiency in critical hardware at a time when quantum technology is both opening up new opportunities and posing a threat to data security,” says Professor Mircea Guina from Tampere University who coordinates the research consortium.

“We also need to develop a general quantum communication system to create a true quantum internet, allowing us to securely communicate and connect remote quantum processors for distributed quantum computing,” says Dr. Teemu Hakkarainen, who coordinated the pre-award phase of the project. Hakkarainen is a Senior Research Fellow at Tampere Institute for Advanced Study, a multidisciplinary research collegium at Tampere University.

The TeleQuant project builds on recent innovations from Tampere University in quantum semiconductor light sources as well as on the latest quantum detection technologies – such as single-photon-sensitive light detectors – developed at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Aalto University.

Tampere University has a two-fold role in the project: research will be conducted by Hakkarainen’s group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), which is led by Professor Guina, and by the Experimental Quantum Optics group (EQO) headed by Professor Robert Fickler.

“My research team at ORC will develop fiber-compatible quantum light sources emitting single photons and entangled photon pairs based on a new semiconductor quantum dot material,” Hakkarainen says.

Professor Fickler’s EQO group will focus on developing quantum information encoding and transfer technologies using the light sources developed at ORC.

TeleQuant

• Telecom-wavelength quantum communication with on-demand quantum light sources (TeleQuant)
• Tampere University will receive funding amounting to €786,800 during the first project phase (2025–2027).
• Additional funding for another three years will be granted if the goals of the first phase are met.
• In the second phase, Finnish companies will also join the project.