The project aims to boost the quantum ecosystem in the Basque Country and bring this emerging technology closer to business and economic activity. The initiative is being developed within the framework of an agreement signed in December between a public-private partnership represented by GAIA and Red.es, an entity attached to the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, through the State Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence. The project has a budget of €4.6 million and involves dozens of Basque companies from various sectors.
Of the 36 defined use cases, 27 are being developed entirely in the Basque Country, 2 in Andalusia, 2 in Asturias, 4 in Castilla-La Mancha, and 1 in La Rioja, under the coordination of GAIA. All of these are industrial innovation use cases utilizing quantum technology applied to strategic productive sectors such as manufacturing, defense, aerospace, logistics, energy, finance, telecommunications, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, health, and biotechnology, among others. Among the developments already underway are solutions aimed at: supply chain optimization, the development of quantum sensors for industrial environments, quantum urban traffic management, optimization of communication and electrical networks, quantum drug discovery, quantum Earth-space linking, drug response prediction, port energy management systems, quantum processing of satellite images, quantum financial optimization, intelligent defense systems for asymmetric warfare, and the detection of specific proteins, among many others.
In addition to developing these innovative applications, the project includes evaluating their impact, implementing training programs, preparing reports and providing training in quantum technologies, as well as disseminating and monitoring the results. In this regard, all participating communities will support the project by deploying and disseminating some of its findings.
According to GAIA, training programs have already begun for professionals and companies starting to work with quantum technologies. Some of these training initiatives, both in-person and online, are being developed in collaboration with the BIQAIN strategy of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia. Furthermore, the project will analyze the current skills and capabilities of the Autonomous Communities in developing their own quantum ecosystems, in order to identify opportunities and areas for improvement.
“We want to analyze our current positioning and study the capabilities and opportunities in the field of quantum physics,” GAIA representatives stated. Both this analysis and the development of use cases, particularly in the Basque Country, will be carried out in alignment with other strategic initiatives such as Basque Quantum (BasQ), BIQAIN, and those promoted by the three provincial councils. Background: On April 15th of last year, the Council of Ministers approved the Spanish Quantum Technologies Strategy 2025-2030, with the goal of making Spain and its quantum ecosystem a European and international benchmark by 2030.
Within this framework, Red.es adopted “Priority 1, Initiative 1.1 Applied Industrial Innovation Use Cases,” launching a General Invitation in September 2025, which resulted in the selection of the alliance represented by GAIA. This alliance comprises GAIA, along with the Innovative Business Group for the technology industry, digitalization, and digital economy sector of La Rioja (CIDATUM); the Information and Communication Technologies Cluster of Asturias (Clúster TIC Asturias); the Spanish Confederation of Information Technology, Communications, and Electronics Companies (CONETIC); the Innovative Business Group of Cybersecurity Companies (CYBERLUR); the Spanish Association of the Science Industry (INEUSTAR); the Industrial Technology Center of Castilla-La Mancha (ITECAM); and the Cluster of Digital, Sustainable, and Innovative Industries (OnTech INNOVATION).
The agreement signed between the public-private partnership and Red.es has a total budget of €4,655,000, of which 80% comes from Next Generation EU funds and the remaining 20% from the participating entities. The initiative is part of Spain's Quantum Technologies Strategy 2025-2030 and will be in effect until March 31, 2027.
