EPFL offers cloud access to quantum computers for the first time in Switzerland

EPFL has become the first Swiss university to provide its researchers with cloud access to advanced quantum computing hardware through its own infrastructure. The initiative is the result of a collaboration between the EPFL Center for Quantum Science and Engineering (QSE) and SCITAS, the institution’s high-performance computing platform, under an agreement with Quantinuum, a leading quantum computing company.

Through the partnership, EPFL researchers can now access Quantinuum’s trapped-ion quantum computers, which are among the most advanced systems currently available to the academic community, directly from SCITAS’s familiar high-performance computing interface, without the need to manage separate tools or workflows. The integration enables experiments that go beyond purely theoretical or small-scale numerical studies, opening new avenues in fields such as quantum algorithms, digital quantum simulation and many-body physics.

Research teams are already proposing projects that leverage the new resource. Planned work includes the simulation of complex quantum systems and investigations into which classes of calculations quantum hardware can perform more efficiently than classical machines, questions that remain central to the field.

The QSE Center is also exploring how to extend access to students enrolled in EPFL’s Master’s program in Quantum Science and Engineering, with the aim of providing hands-on training on real quantum hardware as the technology continues to advance rapidly.