Diraq awarded $3 million NSW Quantum Computing Commercialisation Fund grant

Sydney-based quantum computing startup Diraq has been awarded a $3 million grant from the NSW Quantum Computing Commercialisation Fund (QCCF) to assist with R&D.

Diraq, which is aiming to enable up to billions of spin-based qubits on a circuit using CMOS chip fabrication processes, was awarded the grant following an “extensive peer review by a distinguished panel of experts”, it said in a statement on Monday.

The company added that the grant would help advance its technical roadmap, leveraging a foundational patent set of 10 patent families, “to commercialise and deliver” a 10-qubit silicon quantum processor. This would be Diraq’s first product.

“This substantial financial support reinforces the confidence and trust the State Government has in our vision and capabilities,” said CEO and Founder, Professor Andrew Dzurak. 

“It will be instrumental in driving our quantum computing initiatives and accelerating the pace of innovation within our industry.”

The QCCF is a program administered by the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer within Investment NSW. It is a one-off $7 million fund supporting quantum computing businesses to develop technologies and devices within NSW.

The grant follows $3 million in support awarded by the federal government last month. 

This was through round 14 of CRC-Projects, supporting a collaborative project with University of NSW and Perceptia Devices Australia making use of CMOS-based qubits’ “inherent integration potential to create a Quantum Control Unit (QCU) which can be directly integrated with Diraq’s Quantum Logic Unit (QLU), at scale.”  

Diraq was officially launched last year after splitting from Silicon Quantum Computing, another company with its origins in UNSW’s research in silicon-based quantum technology.

Picture: credit diraq

Further reading

Quantum computing, plastic recycling among round 14 CRC-Projects

Australia’s place in the semiconductor world: Silicon is quantum, quantum is silicon, and Australia might finally have an edge

From conservatorium to qubits (podcast)