Tag Archives: University of Waterloo

$$$, the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), and the Expert panel for 2025’s The State of Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada + a November 26, 2025 innovation event

Leave a reply

I’m a little late to a July 11, 2024 Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) announcement of the members for an expert panel the an upcoming report on The State of Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada, Note: This will be the fifth report

The science, technology, and innovation (STI) landscape has changed rapidly in recent years, as a result of new technologies, ongoing digitization of the economy, a global pandemic that transformed supply chains, and new global security considerations. Since 2006, the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has been documenting Canada’s standing in this landscape by benchmarking science, technology, and innovation strengths and weaknesses in a series of reports, most recently with Competing in a Global Innovation Economy (2018). At the request of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, CCA has formed an expert panel to provide an updated assessment of developments in the STI ecosystem, the extent to which barriers and knowledge gaps continue to impede innovation, and potential opportunities for Canada. Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, managing partner at TwinRiver Capital, will serve as Chair of the expert panel.

“CCA’s reports on this topic have repeatedly highlighted how Canada has historically excelled in research but struggled with innovation and productivity,” said Dr. Treurnicht. “I look forward to mining the extensive evidence and expertise on the topic to determine how things have evolved over the past few years and what new insights can be gained.”

Dr. Treurnicht is a general partner at North South Ventures, chair of the Public Policy Forum Board, and a director of the Equality Fund and Zentek. She was CEO of MaRS Discovery District in Toronto from 2005-2017. She has an extensive background in scientific research and commercialization, building health and cleantech firms, venture and impact investing, and public policy.

As Chair, Dr. Treurnicht will lead a multidisciplinary group with expertise in academic research, industrial research and development, financing, science and innovation policy, economics, and methodological approaches. The Panel will answer the following question:

What is the state of science, technology, and innovation in Canada, and how does Canada compare internationally?

“We are delighted that Dr. Treurnicht has agreed to take on the role of chair,” said Tijs Creutzberg, President and CEO of the CCA. “This is a timely and important assessment—the data and expert analysis by the panel will inform critical conversations about how Canada can position itself for the future.”

…

The Expert Panel on the State of Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada:

  • Ilse Treurnicht (chair), Managing Partner, TwinRiver Capital
  • Robert Atkinson, President, ITIF[Information Technology and Innovation Foundation] Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness
  • Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director, Digital Economy, Technology and Innovation, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
  • Joel Blit, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Waterloo
  • Christina Freyman, Deputy Director, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation
  • Jean Hamel, Chief Engineer, FPInnovations
  • Kathryn Hayashi, CEO, TRIUMF Innovations; Co-Lead Canadian Medical Isotope Ecosystem
  • Burhan Hussein, NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Concordia University
  • Vincent Larivière, UNESCO Chair on Open Science, Université de Montréal
  • Elicia Maine, W.J. VanDusen Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Associate Vice President, Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation, Simon Fraser University
  • Alexandra McCann, Executive Director, ONSIDE
  • R. Sandra Schillo, Associate Professor, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
  • Jeffrey R. Taylor, Associate Vice-President, Applied Research and Innovation, Nova Scotia Community College
  • Hans-Joachim Wieden, Associate Vice-President Partnerships, Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation, University of Manitoba

Expert panel members serve as individuals and do not represent the views of their organizations of affiliation or employment.

The skill set for members of the expert panel’s would seem to be highly concentrated in the fields of business, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and economics. As for geographic representation, it’s a bit unusual (but not unheard of) for two people (Robert Atkinson and Christina Freyman) from the US to be members of the expert panel. Usually, the American or Americans are peer reviewers. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same as usual, a preponderance of experts from eastern Canada (emphasis on Ontario and Québec) with a few representatives from western Canada and no one from the North. The male/female split is about 50/50.

I missed the fourth report but of the ones I’ve commented on, this one is my favourite, “The Hedy Lamarr of international research: Canada’s Third assessment of The State of Science and Technology and Industrial Research and Development in Canada (1 of 2)” and “The Hedy Lamarr of international research: Canada’s Third assessment of The State of Science and Technology and Industrial Research and Development in Canada (2 of 2)” both published April 12, 2018.

The State of Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada report summary is here.

The Walrus Talks Innovation Nation: November 26, 2025 hybrid event

For those unfamiliar with the magazine, from The Walrus’ Wikipedia entry,

The Walrus is an independent, nonprofit Canadian media organization. It is multi-platform and produces an eight-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs, fiction, poetry, and podcasts, a national speaker series called The Walrus Talks, and branded content for clients through The Walrus Lab.

…

The first issue was in September 2003. Given how tough the publishing environment is, The Walrus has an impressive survival record. Bravo!

Coming up shortly is their innovation event, from The Walrus Talks event page,

Canadian research to real-world solutions

A new federal government is setting its sights on a stronger, more resilient Canada—and the key to getting there is homegrown innovation.

The Walrus Talks Innovation Nation celebrates the transformative research emerging from Canadian universities that’s already shaping how we live, work, and thrive. From life-saving medical breakthroughs to bold climate solutions and cutting-edge artificial intelligence, university-led research is transforming visionary ideas into tangible solutions that are fueling our economy, improving our well-being, and elevating Canada’s global leadership.

Join us in Ottawa or online for an inspiring evening of rapid-fire talks from award-winning researchers and pioneering experts. In dynamic seven-minute presentations, they’ll share how groundbreaking innovation is creating real-world impact—and how Canadian research is defining tomorrow’s possibilities.

…

Featuring seven-minute talks by:

  • Dr. André Blais, Emeritus Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montreal
  • Dr. Kyle Bobiwash, Assistant Professor and Indigenous Scholar, Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
  • Dr. Sarah Burch, Executive Director, Waterloo Climate Institute; Professor, Geography and Environmental Management; Canada Research Chair
  • Dr. Graham Carr, President and Vice-Chancellor, Concordia University
  • Rahul G. Krishnan, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto; Canada CIFAR Artificial Intelligence Chair
  • Dr. Catalina Lopez-Correa, Chief Global Strategy Officer, Genome Canada
  • Dr. Gina Ogilvie, MD DrPH FCFP FRSC; Professor and Canada Research Chair, Faculty of Medicine; Associate Director, Women’s Health Research Institute, University of British Columbia
Canadian Museum of Nature,
4th Floor Gallery,
240 McLeod Street, Ottawa
 
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. ET
 
General Admission: $20
Student/Senior: $12
Livestream: Free with registration

….

You can register here.

Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) work together to improve critical minerals mining and supply chains

Leave a reply

Let’s start with the Canadian announcement of this new science partnership, from a July 3, 2025 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada news release,

A ground-breaking Canadian and United Kingdom (UK) science partnership will bring researchers together to tackle critical minerals challenges.

Five research partnerships funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council (UKRI’s NERC) will study ways to:

  • clean up toxic mine water,
  • develop new geological tools for extracting rare earth minerals, vital for magnets,
  • identify mineral-rich volcanic deposits,
  • drive sustainable mining practices by co-extracting critical minerals with gold and copper, and
  • make critical mineral supply chains recyclable and more secure.

The five partnerships announced today will receive approximately $250,000 of supplementary funding from NSERC, to complement their share of £1 million GBP International Science Partnerships funding through NERC. This expands total Canadian investments made by NSERC to over $4 million for the successful Canadian-led projects via Alliance grants.

This partnership between Canada and the UK follows their landmark agreement which was signed in March 2023 to cooperate on critical minerals (see UK-Canada critical minerals dialogue press release). 

These studies will support closer collaboration between Canada and the UK, and boost economic growth and job creation.

They will also protect national security interests by strengthening supply chains for critical minerals and reduce the environmental impact of mining.

Awarded Alliance Missions projects:

Microalgal biosorption of critical minerals from mining related tailing ponds – recovering key metals to better protect aquatic systems and water supplies

John Ashley Scott, Laurentian University
Andrea Hamilton, University of Strathclyde

Unlocking Canada’s rare earth element (REE) potential: a multidisciplinary approach to understand high-grade critical REE mineralization in northern Saskatchewan

Camille Partin, University of Saskatchewan
Eimear Deady, British Geological Survey

Geology, mineralogy, and genesis of critical mineral-bearing volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits

Stephen Piercey, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Steven Hollis, University of Edinburgh

An integrated source to sink approach to characterizing critical metals enrichment in magmatic-hydrothermal deposits

Kyle Larson, The University of British Columbia
Katie McFall, University College London

Sustainability standards and traceability of critical minerals value-chains (Lumet)

Steven Young, University of Waterloo
Teresa Domenech, University College London

Professor Alejandro Adem, President, NSERC

“International partnerships like this one are essential to tackling global challenges such as critical mineral security. By combining Canada’s expertise with the UK’s, we can accelerate innovation and advance sustainable solutions to drive economic growth, resilience, and environmental responsibility.”

Professor Louise Heathwaite, Executive Chair, NERC

“We rely on critical minerals for our cars, our phones, our energy, our defense and many more areas of life. The new studies announced today will drive new technologies, advance sustainable mining and support economic growth.

“It will also build on our key partnership with Canada, enhancing collaboration, coordination, and sharing our knowledge and skills in this key area of research.”

The July 3, 2025 UK Research and Innovation press release on EurekAlert offers some insight into their government’s perspective on this scientific partnership, Note 1: The introductory lines and bulleted list are almost identical to the previous news release; it’s the following paragraphs that are of interest, Note 2: Links have been removed,

A groundbreaking UK and Canadian science partnership will bring researchers together to tackle critical minerals challenges.

Five research partnerships will study ways to:

  • clean up contaminated mine water
  • develop new geological tools for extracting rare earth minerals, vital for magnets
  • identify mineral-rich volcanic deposits
  • drive sustainable mining practices by co-extracting critical minerals with gold and copper
  • make critical mineral supply chains recyclable and more secure

Why this matters

This matters because:

  • critical minerals are raw materials essential for modern technologies, including electronics, renewable energy and defense systems
  • global demand and international competition for technology-critical mineral resources is expected to quadruple by 2040
  • ensuring responsible access to these minerals is vital for national security, clean energy and maintaining technological competitiveness

Key area of investment

Research into critical minerals is a key area of investment for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which includes:

  • lithium for smartphones
  • gallium for semi-conductors and solar panels
  • cobalt for electronics

The five research partnerships announced today will receive a share of the £1 million International Science Partnerships Fund award through the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Enabling international collaborations

These partnerships expand five Alliance Missions grants funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), which is receiving approximately $250,000 Canadian dollars (CAD) of supplementary funding to enable the international collaborations.

In total, an investment of over $4 million CAD is being made to these successful projects.

This partnership between the UK and Canada follows their landmark agreement which was signed in March 2023 to cooperate on critical minerals.

See the UK and Canada critical minerals dialogue press release.

Driving sustainability of the sector

Researchers will study ways to reduce mining’s environmental footprint and enhance efficiency across critical mineral value chains, from exploration to recycling.

It also seeks to build a critical minerals circular economy, minimising reliance on traditional extraction methods, for example by:

  • mine reclamation
  • critical mineral recycling
  • reprocessing of residual mining waste

Research areas

Cleaning up contaminated mine water

This project aims to clean up contaminated mine water using a combination of calcium silicate (CS) and microalgae.

CS sequesters heavy metals like cobalt, nickel and copper, while microalgae help with long-term water remediation.

This approach is low-cost, scalable and environmentally friendly, removing harmful dissolved metals and recovering them for reuse.

Making permanent magnets

To meet net zero goals, this project will develop new geological models and exploration tools for rare earth element (REE) deposits in Saskatchewan, Canada.

REE are crucial for making permanent magnets in wind turbines and electric vehicles.

The research will help diversify the REE supply chain and ensure high environmental standards.

Metals in volcanic areas

This project studies the processes that make some regions rich in volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits, which are rich sources of:

  • copper
  • zinc
  • lead
  • silver
  • gold

The research aims to improve exploration and mining efficiency, focusing on the UK, Ireland, and Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Co-extracting gold and copper plus critical minerals

This project aims to understand how critical metals like tellurium, bismuth, antimony and platinum group metals can be efficiently extracted as by-products from copper and gold deposits in British Columbia, Canada.

The research will help improve extraction techniques, ensuring a stable supply and minimising environmental impact.

Boosting supply chains

Critical Minerals for Resilience and Sustainability (MINERS) aims to enhance the resilience and sustainability of critical minerals supply chains between the UK and Canada.

The project will identify whether there is an opportunity to reuse critical minerals are part of a circular economy and define policy levers to move away from unsustainable practices.

Using supply chain modelling, it will map current flows of critical minerals and assess resilience to shocks.

How this research will benefit the UK and Canada

These studies will support closer collaboration between Canada and the UK and boost economic growth and job creation.

They will also protect national security interests by strengthening supply chains for critical minerals and reduce the environmental impact of mining.

Accelerating innovation

Professor Alejandro Adem, President of NSERC, said:

International partnerships like this one are essential to tackling global challenges such as critical mineral security.

By combining Canada’s expertise with the UK’s, we can accelerate innovation and advance sustainable solutions to drive economic growth, resilience, and environmental responsibility.

Economic growth

Professor Louise Heathwaite, Executive Chair of NERC, said:

We currently rely on critical minerals for our cars, our phones, our energy, our defence and many more areas of life.

The new partnerships announced today will help drive new technologies, advance sustainable mining and support research and innovation outcomes that enable economic growth.

It will also build on our key partnership with Canada, enhancing collaboration, coordination, and sharing our knowledge and skills in this key area of research.

Further information

Current UKRI-funded investments on critical minerals

NERC Centre for Doctoral Training: mineral resources for energy transition

TARGET: Training and Research Group for Energy Transition Mineral Resources

Met4Tech: The Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre in Technology Metals

UK centres to play vital role in boosting modern green industries

UK supply chains get safeguarding boost

Further details of the projects announced today

A Combined Geochemical and Biosorption Tool for Mine Water Clean-Up and Valorisation

Andrea Hamilton, University of Strathclyde, UK

John Ashley Scott, Laurentian University, Canada

Exploration and Geomodels for Rare Earth Element Pegmatite Targets

Eimear Deady, Alicja Lacinska, Holly Elliott, Monty Pearson, Nick Roberts, Richard Shaw, Victoria Loving, British Geological Survey, UK

Camille Partin, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Metal Fertility and Transport in Volcanic-Hosted Hydrothermal Systems

Steven Hollis, The University of Edinburgh, UK

Hannah Grant, Mark Cooper, British Geological Survey, UK

Stephen Piercey, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

Katie McFall, University College London, UK

Towards ‘Critical Geometallurgy’ of Post-Subduction Mineral Resources

Katie McFall, Emma Humphreys-Williams, Frances Cooper, University College London, UK

Kyle Larson, The University of British Columbia, Canada

Dan Smith, University of Leicester, UK

MINERS

Teresa Domenech, Paul Ekins, Xavier Lemaire, University College London, UK

Gavin Mudd, British Geological Survey, UK

Steven Young, University of Waterloo, Canada

…

As mentioned in both releases, there was an earlier agreement that presaged this 2025 funding announcement and there is a tonal difference between the two 2023 releases under Canada’s Justin Trudeau Liberal government and the UK’s Rishi Sundak Conservative government, respectively. First, the March 6, 2023 Natural Resources Canada news release,

Critical minerals are vital to almost every aspect of the modern world, from electronic equipment to renewable energy, to defence and electric vehicles. Their importance in the global net-zero transition means that they are increasingly sought-after: the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects that global demand for critical minerals will grow four-fold from 2020 to 2040 and beyond. It is clear that we must grow and secure the global supply of critical minerals, while ensuring the resilience and sustainability of our supply chains, which requires significant international collaboration. To further enhance this collaboration, Canada and the United Kingdom are pleased to announce the establishment of a Critical Minerals Supply Chains Dialogue.

Canada and the United Kingdom are committed to working together to tackle this challenge and seize the opportunities to support economic growth. We will therefore endeavour to collaborate closely to build resilient, sustainable, and transparent supply chains. We will work together to develop solutions to new global challenges including climate change, promote jobs and investment in both our countries, and deepen the already-strong ties between Canada and the United Kingdom.

Canada and the United Kingdom have each released national Critical Minerals Strategies, and there is a strong case for us to work in concert to achieve our aims. Both countries are committed to ensuring critical minerals markets are diverse, resilient, guided by fair market practices and underpinned by the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, along with demonstrating respect for Indigenous peoples’ rights and local communities. Both countries will also seek to ensure that the supply chains that bring these minerals from mine to end product are transparent and innovation-driven, including a focus on recycling and mineral circularity. The United Kingdom-Canada Critical Minerals Supply Chains Dialogue will be established, building on the enduring ties between our nations, demonstrated through the UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement (and ongoing negotiations for a high ambition, bespoke bilateral Free Trade Agreement), the March 2022 Leaders’ statement on collaborating on economic resilience and critical minerals, our joint work through Five Eyes, and our joint membership in the Minerals Security Partnership, the IEA’s Critical Minerals Working Party and the Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance.

We will deepen Canada and the United Kingdom’s engagement and cooperation on critical minerals supply chain resilience and trade, ESG credentials, and Research and Innovation. We will capitalise on the respective strengths of both countries, and our shared commitment to growing the sector to strengthen international critical minerals supply chains, promote economic security, and contribute to meeting net zero targets.

Canada is a global mining leader and home to advanced exploration projects for battery minerals and metals such as lithium and graphite, as well as rare earths and other critical minerals that are vital inputs for EVs and the clean technology sectors. With high ESG credentials and one of the lowest ESG risks across global mining projects, Canada is a leader in community engagement, conservation, governance and Canadian critical minerals are carbon competitive. Canadian nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminium, uranium, and potash are some of the least emissions intensive in the world. With clean electricity and a mining industry’s commitment to sustainability, Canada has a global reputation as a secure partner across the critical mineral value chains for batteries, EVs, and other advanced technologies for the net zero and digital transition.

The UK is home to strong mining and engineering sectors, and is a global centre for financing, standards and metals trading. It has mining and mineral processing expertise, including various industrial clusters and Europe’s leading mining school, and its own pockets of critical minerals wealth. British advanced manufacturers are customers for critical minerals and play an important role in their supply chains. The UK also has a role as an international dealmaker, leveraging its expertise in regulatory diplomacy, its extensive engagement in multilateral forums and its strong relationships with mineral-rich producer countries and consumer markets.

Through the United Kingdom-Canada Critical Minerals Supply Chains Dialogue, it is intended that both countries will work together to pursue the following shared objectives:

  • Promote and build secure and integrated UK-Canada critical mineral supply chains, including through information-sharing, facilitating investment, and building commercial relationships between Canadian and UK industries, and sharing supply chain resilience analysis.
  • Drive higher ESG performance across all elements of the critical minerals value chain, through government signalling, active promotion throughout our respective industries and close collaboration in multilateral fora.
  • Leverage the existing strengths of the two countries to promote skill-sharing and R&D between UK and Canadian industry, academia, and governments, along with other close international allies to spur supply chain innovation. This collaboration will build new linkages in upstream and midstream segments of critical mineral value chains, extending to downstream reuse and recycling.

Officials from Natural Resources Canada and Global Affairs Canada, and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will work closely together and with other participants of the United Kingdom-Canada Critical Minerals Supply Chains Dialogue to lead this work and identify an initial set of priorities for our collaboration.

Now, the March 6, 2023 UK’s Department for International Trade/Department for Business and Trade press release,

The UK and Canada have agreed a landmark agreement to co-operate on critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium that are essential to the economy.

  • UK and Canada to sign agreement to bolster vital technologies such as smart phones, solar panels and electric vehicles.
  • Agree to work together on critical minerals research and make supply chains more resilient as demand for some minerals expected to rise 500% by 2040.
  • Agreement signed on Minister Nus Ghani’s five-day visit to Canada to meet counterparts and attend the International Mines Ministers Summit and the closing of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The UK and Canada have agreed a landmark agreement [sic] to co-operate on critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium that are essential to the economy and used in almost all modern and green technologies, from solar panels to electric vehicles.

The partnership, to be launched today [Monday 6 March {2025}] by Business and Trade Minister Nusrat Ghani MP and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, will help make UK manufacturers of cutting-edge technologies more resilient to global shocks by promoting research and development between UK and Canadian businesses, driving innovation and growth.

The announcement comes on a five-day visit to Canada, during which time Minister Ghani will also meet Canadian government counterparts to discuss critical minerals and attend the International Mines Ministers Summit and the closing of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Minister for Business and Trade, Nusrat Ghani MP, said:

Every single one of us depend on critical minerals to make the technology we use in our everyday lives. With a dash for minerals to meet national business needs, it is essential we work to build more resilient supply chains for critical minerals.

Through this Dialogue, we will work with one of our closest global allies in Canada to build and strengthen our supply chains and boost innovation, securing jobs and growing the UK economy in the process.

Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, said:

Canada and the United Kingdom share similar goals and values.

By collaborating on the development of the critical mineral supply chains that we need to achieve our net-zero future, we can reinforce global energy security, advance the fight against climate change and ensure significant economic opportunity and support good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today’s announcement is a step forward toward a sustainable and secure clean energy ecosystem.

Canada is the UK’s 13th largest export partner, with UK companies exporting £14.1 billion worth of goods and services to Canada in the 12 months to September 2022. Canada represents a large opportunity for UK mining and engineering firms, with the country currently producing 60 minerals and metals at 200 mines and 6,500 quarries. [emphasis mine]

The Critical Minerals Statement of Intent and Dialogue will be launched by Minister Ghani at the 2023 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention. They also commit Canada and the UK to high environmental, social and governance standards in critical minerals supply chains.

Demand for certain critical minerals is expected to rise by as much as 500% by 2040, and the Statement and Dialogue are a part of the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy to secure supply chains for these minerals and therefore the UK’s position in the growing markets for green technologies, such as hydrogen production and nuclear energy. A refreshed approach for delivering the Strategy is due to be published later this year [2023].

Yes, again, we are the staples economy, aka (also known as) the hewers of wood and drawers of water. Or, in the context of this 2023 UK press release, Canadians provide a good market for UK products while happily supplying the UK with the resources for those high value products, which they sell back to us thereby extracting both Canadian resources and more profit for the UK.

I gather Keir Starmer’s Labour government is taking a ‘softly, softly’ approach in comparison to the Sundak Conservative government’s more direct approach. Of course that ‘softly, softly’ approach features a press release, which lists approximately 19 UK researchers as opposed to five Canadian researchers. So, approximately 80% of the researchers are affiliated with UK institutions. Interesting.

Also interesting? No mention in any release of the Geological Survey of Canada as opposed to the mention of the British Geological Survey.

Year of Quantum Across Canada Conference October 6 – 9, 2025, Waterloo, Ontario (call for submissions deadline: Sept. 19, 2025)

Leave a reply

A September 9, 2025 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) notice (received via email) announces a quantum conference and call for posters,

Join leading quantum researchers at the Year of Quantum Across Canada Conference that will highlight advances in quantum information theory and applications. The conference is co-hosted by the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics from October 6 to 9, 2025.

  • Learn about and share the latest advances in quantum information theory and applications.
  • Find opportunities to collaborate with local, Canadian and international quantum researchers.
  • Celebrate 100 years since the initial development of quantum mechanics this International Year of Quantum.

IQC and Perimeter Institute invite all scientists who are interested in:

  • Quantum metrology
  • Quantum simulation and quantum advantage
  • Quantum error-correction and fault tolerance
  • Quantum complexity and algorithms
  • Quantum communication and networks
  • Quantum cryptography
  • Quantum information in quantum matter and quantum gravity

Register Today

Registration Deadlines: 

  • In-Person: September 22 [2025] at 23:59 ET
  • Virtual: October 6 [2025] at 23:59 ET

We are hosting a poster session on Tuesday, October 7 [2025]. Abstract submission deadline is September 19 [2025] at 23:59 ET.

Please forward this email to your colleagues who would be interested in attending. Questions can be directed to mail to: iqc.events@uwaterloo.ca

I have more information about the call for poster submissions, from the Year of Quantum Across Canada’s Call for Abstracts webpage,

Submission deadline: Sep[t] 19, 2025, 11:59 PM [ET]

The Year of Quantum Across Canada Symposium will be hosting a poster session on Tuesday, Oct 7th [2025] at IQC. Poster submissions are welcome and will be reviewed by the program committee. Some posters may be selected to present as a contributed talk. If you are interested in your poster being considered for a talk, please indicate this on the submission form.

NOTE: You must be in attendance at the Symposium in Waterloo to present a poster and/or contributed talk. We encourage you to register for the Symposium as soon as possible as space is limited. You will be advised if your poster has been accepted before the registration fee payment deadline.

If you have questions about the Call for Abstracts with respect to your research, please contact Alex May (amay@perimeterinstitute.ca).

Any logistical questions about the application process, the website or decision timelines should be directed to conferences@perimeterinstitute.ca

Then, there’s this from the Year of Quantum Across Canada’s Speaker List webpage, Note: Two confirmed speakers from Canada to “celebrate and aim to strengthen the quantum information science community in Canada and beyond, by bringing together leading Canadian researchers as well as members of the broader quantum community” as per the conference homepage. Maybe they’ll get a few more before October 2025?,

Speaker List

Confirmed Speakers:

Christian Bauer (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Alexandre Blais (Université de Sherbrooke)
Sergey Bravyi (IBM Research – Thomas J. Watson Research Center)
Nikolas Breuckmann (University of Bristol)
Soonwon Choi (MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology])
Zohreh Davoudi (University of Maryland)
Matthew Fisher (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Dakshita Khurana (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Aleksander Kubica (Yale University)
Hank Lamm (Fermilab)
Laura Mancinska (University of Copenhagen)
Antonio Mezzacapo (IBM)
John Preskill (Caltech)
Martin Savage (University of Washington)
Brian Swingle (Brandeis University)
Nathan Wiebe (University of Toronto)
Yu-Xiang Yang (The University of Hong Kong)

Moving on, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) took a slightly more celebratory approach to their launch of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025 (IYQ 2025) in February 2025 (see my January 31, 2025 posting).

You can find the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025 (IYQ 2025) website here. It provides information about a plethora of quantum events in countries around the world along with this video embedded here too,

Happy International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025 (YQ 2025)!

Canadian Science Policy Centre presents a Science Diplomacy Symposium (European Union – Canada Scientific Collaboration in Horizon) on October 3, 2025 + a Sept. 10, 2025 event

Leave a reply

Before getting to the October ‘collaboration’ event, here’s a brief overview of the European Union’s (EU) science funding programme. Once called a ‘framework’, they were designed to function in seven year increments with the last one bearing that name, the Seventh Framework, ending in 2013. It was succeeded by Horizon 2020 and, then, succeeded by Horizon Europe, which is due to wind down in 2027. You can read more about the programmes in the Horizon Europe Wikipedia entry where you’ll discover that the funding programme extended partnership status to Canada in January 2024. which is now one of the EU’s 27 partner countries

Horizon Europe and the University of Waterloo

I got a notice about this free September 10, 2025 event in Waterloo, Ontario courtesy of my August 23, 2025 Google alert. From the University of Waterloo’s Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) ‘Workshop on Strengthening Research Collaboration through Horizon Europe‘ event page,

The Office of Research and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) are pleased to co-host a distinguished delegation from the Czech Republic, presenting a workshop event on Strengthening Research Collaboration through Horizon Europe. The delegation includes representatives from three of the top-ranked universities in the Czech Republic: Charles University, Brno University of Technology, and the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague.

This event will take place on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, in QNC 1501. After the workshop, a networking lunch will be hosted from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM.

All WIN members and the broader research community are invited to attend the workshop.

About the event: 

Objectives: 

Strengthening Research Collaboration through Horizon Europe: To explore and establish research cooperation under the Horizon Europe programme.

Focus:

  • The event focused primarily on Horizon Europe cooperation. Participants will contribute concrete topics for Horizon and R&D collaboration, which will be disseminated to encourage future partnerships. 
  • The participants’ expertise spans two main domains:
    • Engineering: advanced materials, manufacturing, and automation
    • Life Sciences: digital health solutions, transformational health technologies, health economics, and biotechnologies

Czech Republic Delegation

(To be updated)

NameAffliation 
Eva Libs BartonovaHead of Trade and Investment Section in Toronto
Jana BartosovaDirector of Center of Biomedical Technologies Transfer, University Hospital Hradec Králové           
Josef CernohorskyInstitute of Mechatronics and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Liberec
Richard CimlerHead of Centre for Advanced Technologies, University of Hradec Kralove
Jaroslav DemelFaculty of Economics, Technical University of Liberec
Rudolf FrycekCEO, Amires
Jana KolomaznikovaResearch Process Manager, Central Bohemian Innovation Centre
Vladimir KrylovDean, Faculty of Natural Science, Charles University
Kamil KucaBiotech Specialist, Betthera
HE [His Excellency] Radek MachůConsul General of the Czech Republic in Toronto
Ondřej MosCEO, The University Company TUL s.r.o.
Roman ParakSenior Research Scientist & Research Project Leader, Intemac
Lukas PeterVice-Dean for Cooperation with Industry, Faculty of Material Science, VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava
Martina PlisováHead of Tech Transfer, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences           
Iveta SimberovaVice-Rector, Brno University of Technology
Prague [sic] Viola TokárováDepartment of Chemical Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology [Prague]
Jan ValteraVice-Dean, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Liberec

Waterloo Organizing Committee

NameAffiliation 
Scott InwoodDirector of Commercialization, University of Waterloo
Ashley HannonAssociate Director, Corporate Research Partnerships, Office of Research, University of Waterloo
Susan KaaiSenior Manager, International Research, Funding Agencies and Non-Profit Sponsors, University of Waterloo
Maria SuarezMarket Development Manager – Food Processing and Advanced Manufacturing, Waterloo Economic Development Corporation (EDC)
Ishari Waduwara-JayabahuInternational Relations Officer, Waterloo International, University of Waterloo
Dennis WongBusiness Development Manager, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo

The agenda will be finalized and updated later.

Registration

Act Now and send an email to WIN, dennis.wong@uwaterloo.ca and Office of Research, skaai@uwaterloo.ca, identifying which institutions and calls you are interested to connect with. It is possible to also propose any other consortia that you are interested in. 

Thank you!

…

I don’t often come across information about the Czech Republic’s science efforts. It’s always good to learn more.

Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) and a Science Diplomacy Symposium (European Union – Canada Scientific Collaboration in Horizon)

An August 21, 2025 Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) newsletter (received via email) announced a science diplomacy symposium being held in October 2025,

Upcoming Symposium:
European Union – Canada Scientific Collaboration 

CSPC and the Delegation of the European Union to Canada present the Science Diplomacy Symposium: European Union–Canada Scientific Collaboration in Horizon on October 3, 2025 in downtown Toronto. This in-person event will spotlight transatlantic research and innovation, exploring shared priorities, youth engagement, and global scientific leadership. Stay tuned for program and speaker announcements! Registration to this event is free but required as space is limited. 

To read more about the symposium, click here.

Register (for free) Here

Here’s more from the CSPC (Science Diplomacy Symposium) European Union – Canada Scientific Collaboration in Horizon event page,

The Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) is pleased to announce its partnership with the European Union, through its Delegation to Canada, for the upcoming Science Diplomacy Symposium: European Union- Canada  Scientific Collaboration in Horizon.

This flagship event will highlight the European Union- Canada scientific cooperation, with a particular focus on Horizon Europe, the European Union’s largest research and innovation program. It will bring together European and Canadian leaders in research, innovation, and policy to explore the future of transatlantic scientific collaboration, spotlighting Horizon Europe as a powerful tool for advancing shared priorities between the European Union and Canada.

The event will feature three high-level panels:

  1. Advancing European Union-Canada Research and Innovation: Focus on Horizon Europe
  2. Building Global Scientific Leadership: Youth Engagement through Horizon Europe
  3. The Future of Scientific Collaboration between the European Union and Canada

Additional details on the program and speakers will be announced soon, so stay tuned!

For more information or questions related to this event, please email: info@sciencepolicy.ca

Science Diplomacy Symposium:

European Union – Canada Scientific Collaboration in Horizon

October 3, 2025 | Faculty Club, University of Toronto | 8:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Click Here to Register

*Registration to this event is free but required as space is limited.

As you see, there aren’t too many details. Hopefully there will be some announcement about the speakers soon.

It does appear to be an in person event only.

Background on the CSPC, science diplomacy, and Canada’s outreach

Much to my surprise, the CSPC has been organizing science diplomacy events for several years. How did I miss seeing them? (’nuff said) I have been able to fill in a few blanks with an undated document I stumbled across, ‘2nd National Symposium on “Science Diplomacy,” organized by CSPC’ found here: https://na.eventscloud.com/file_uploads/cb7066ca2c5ff2a3d9fd3786706c7b6a_2ndNationalSymposiumonScienceDiplomacyorganizedbyCSPC.pdf, from the final paragraph, Note: Three of the links failed to function and, so, were removed,

CSPC has been the leading Canadian institution in promoting dialogue and capacity building in science diplomacy among other science policy topics. CSPC held the first Science Diplomacy Session with Dr. Nina Federoff, former Science and technology adviser to US Secretary of State in 2010. In 2013, CSPC held the first of its kind national symposium on science diplomacy [link failed to function]. Similarly, in 2015, CSPC organized an invigorating symposium on diaspora scientists [link failed to function] highlighting Canada’s diverse scientific community and their natural disposition for promoting international collaboration and in strengthening Canada’s global position in scientific excellence. More recently, in June of this year, CSPC hosted a breakfast session at the Parliament Hill [ink failed to function] where Dr. Vaughan Turekian, Science Adviser to US Secretary of State, John Kerry, highlighted the importance of “Science Diplomacy in the 21st Century

Moving on to 2025, here’s some background on strengthening ties with Europe from a June 23, 2025 news release from the Prime Minister’s Office,

Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced an historic step forward for Canada’s relationship with the European Union (EU). Together with President Costa and President von der Leyen, the Prime Minister announced they will forge a new, ambitious, and comprehensive partnership. The New EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future is rooted in shared values and the rules-based international system, and strategically aimed to pursue common interests.

Canada and the EU will soon launch comprehensive negotiations across multiple areas to strengthen co-operation and connection – including trade and economic security, the digital transition, and the fight against climate change and environmental degradation. This will create more economic opportunities and long-term prosperity for workers, businesses, and citizens in both Canada and the EU.

As part of this new, strengthened relationship, Canada and the EU today signed the Security and Defence Partnership, which provides a framework for dialogue and co-operation in security and defence priorities. For Canada and the EU Member States who are NATO Allies, this will also help deliver on capability targets more quickly and economically. This new partnership is the intentional first step toward Canada’s participation in Security Action for Europe (SAFE), an instrument of the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030. Canada’s participation in this initiative will create significant defence procurement and industrial opportunities for Canada.

In an increasingly dangerous and divided world, Canada’s new government is focused on strengthening and diversifying our international partnerships. We will work with the EU and other allies to build a new international, rules-based system for a more secure and prosperous world.

Jessica Mundie’s June 25, 2025 article for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news online specifies that Canada is not looking to be a member of the EU, Note: A link has been removed,

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is “looking for a closer partnership” with the European Union — but not to become a member.

While speaking from the NATO summit in the Netherlands — where he announced Canada’s promise to spend five per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2035 — Carney was asked whether he has given any thought to trying to join the bloc of European nations.

“The short answer is no,” he said. “That’s not the intent. That’s not the pathway we’re on.”

…

Certainly, there’s an interest in scientific collaboration as evidenced by this Horizon Europe webpage (modified on June 23, 2025) on the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) website. Note: A link has been removed,

Horizon Europe is the world’s largest research and innovation funding program. It gives Canadians access to even more opportunities to elevate their research and innovations through global partnerships.

Funding is available to all types of organizations, including researchers, universities, small- and medium-sized enterprises, non-profit organizations, institutions and more.

With different pillars of funding for individual researchers or collaborative projects, Horizon Europe supports the world’s greatest scientific and innovative breakthroughs in research and development (R&D) and industrial competitiveness.

Pillar 2 includes six thematic clusters, each tackling specific themes to address societal issues and strengthening Europe’s industrial competitiveness.

…

While Canada was added as a partner to the Horizon Europe list in 2024, it seems active interest is increasing, On a related note, there are two upcoming episodes CSPC’s SciPol Digest podcast,

Episode 5

The Future of the Scientific International Cooperation in a Geopolitical Shift

In this episode, we will explore how global tensions and shifting alliances are reshaping international scientific collaboration, with insights from experts in science, policy, and diplomacy.

Coming Soon!

Episode 6

US and Canada scientific collaboration in 2025

This episode will examine the current landscape of research collaboration between Canada and the U.S., exploring how political shifts may impact joint initiatives, funding, and researcher mobility in 2025.

Coming Soon!

Whether we like it or not, we live in interesting times.

34th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI): AI at the service of society (August 16 – 22, 2025) in Montréal (Canada)

Leave a reply

The International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) have been going since 1969 and this year, it’s being held in Montréal. Here’s more from an August 15, 2025 International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence news release on EurekAlert,

“AI at the service of society” is the guiding theme of the 34th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), taking place from August 16 to 22, 2025 in Montreal, Canada. Since its inception in 1969, IJCAI has played a pivotal role as a forum to showcase the frontiers of artificial intelligence research and applications and thus represents the oldest continuously running conference on artificial intelligence.

In 2025, the conference with more than 2000 attendees, has been brought to Canada by Gilles Pesant, the Local Arrangements Committee Chair, Professor in the Department of Computer and Software Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal and IVADO [Institut de valorisation des données] researcher. “What makes IJCAI special is that it brings together the latest research from many different areas of artificial intelligence. It’s a great opportunity for the Canadian AI community to showcase the world-class contributions and outstanding talent,` says the founder of the Quosséça research lab (QUebec Optimization and Satisfaction Strategies Exploiting Constraint Algorithms) and current President of the Association for Constraint Programming. Prof. Pesant is known for developing advanced algorithms for complex scheduling and planning problems. Among his current research interests are neuro-symbolic AI systems which combine machine learning and constraint programming.

Canada’s AI Leadership

This year marks the 30th anniversary of a breakthrough that transformed artificial intelligence by giving machines the ability to learn from and remember sequences such as speech, language, and time-series data – Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture. While not developed in Canada, the story of LSTM is intertwined with Canada’s leadership in artificial intelligence. During the “AI winter,” when much of the world abandoned neural networks, Canada became a refuge for pioneering AI research. Visionaries like Geoffrey Hinton, now a Nobel Prize winner, and Yoshua Bengio, among others, continued to advance deep learning despite widespread skepticism. Their perseverance and the resilience of the Canadian research community laid the foundation for the AI revolution that is transforming the world today. Canada continues to lead through such institutions as MILA, Vector Institute, AMII, IVADO, and the Canadian AI Safety Institute. 

The IJCAI 2025 program features a lineup of internationally recognised keynote speakers, covering the full spectrum of AI research, including:

Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer in representation learning and one of the godfathers of deep learning. He is a recipient of the 2018 Turing Award—often called the “Nobel Prize of Computing”—which he shares with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun for demonstrating how deep learning models can scale effectively with large datasets and computational power. Bengio is a professor at the Université de Montréal and the founder of Mila – Quebec AI Institute, one of the world’s largest academic labs dedicated to deep learning, which has helped establish Montreal as a global hub for AI research.

Every time someone uses a search engine or an AI-powered chatbot, they benefit from technologies that bridge the gap between human language and machine understanding — a challenge directly addressed by Heng Ji’s research. An invited IJCAI speaker, Ji is a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, renowned for her pioneering work on how AI systems extract and distill knowledge from vast amounts of unstructured data. Far from being confined to academia, she is also an active voice in AI policy, contributing her expertise to discussions on the ethical and responsible development of AI.

Luc De Raedt, professor of computer science at KU Leuven and director of Leuven.AI, is widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to integrating machine learning with symbolic reasoning. Beyond his research, he has played a significant leadership role in fostering public dialogue on responsible AI, spearheading initiatives and organizing debates on the societal impacts of AI to help shape conversations around ethical and trustworthy AI development. In his IJCAI2025 kenyote address he will talk about ‘Neurosymbolic AI : combining Data and Knowledge’.

In this effort, he is not alone. Bernhard Schölkopf, director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and co-founder of ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems), is another leading figure giving an invited talk on ‘From ML for science to causal digital twins’. In addition to his scientific contributions — particularly in kernel methods and causal inference — Schölkopf is a prominent advocate for ethical and trustworthy AI in Europe. He plays a key role in shaping AI research agendas and informing policy discussions around responsible AI.

The Montreal program also features invited talks by IJCAI 2025 awardees: Aditya Grover (UCLA and Inception Labs), recipient of the IJCAI-25 Computers and Thought Award; Rina Dechter (University of California, Irvine), recipient of the IJCAI-25 Award for Research Excellence; and Cynthia Rudin (Duke Univeristy), recipient of the IJCAI-25 John McCarthy Award.

The IJCAI 2025 scientific program highlights how AI is shaping both cutting-edge research and real-world impact. The AI, Arts & Creativity track explores AI’s growing role in generating and supporting creative work—from music and design to storytelling and architecture. The Human-Centred AI track addresses the challenges of building AI systems aligned with human values, integrating technical, cognitive, ethical, and societal perspectives. The AI for Social Good track focuses on AI-driven solutions for pressing global challenges, encouraging collaborations with governments, NGOs, and researchers to support initiatives like the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Meanwhile, the AI4Tech track showcases how AI is driving breakthroughs in critical technologies across sectors such as health, finance, mobility, and smart cities. Complementing these thematic tracks, IJCAI 2025 includes as well a set of impactful competitions and challenges to push the boundaries of applied AI, including the Challenge on Deepfake Detection and Localization, the AI for Drinking Water Chlorination Challenge, and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Segmentation Challenge. Together, these elements reflect the pulse of AI today—advancing science while addressing the needs of society. IJCAI 2025 also presents an AI Art Gallery featuring works that examine how machines balance agency and vulnerability, and how their interactions with humans and the environment shape future possibilities. These artworks engage with these questions through AI, robotics, AR, VR, and other emerging technologies.

The program also includes the AI Lounge: Between Wonder and Caution – Insights from Three Experts, an admission-free public discussion featuring science communication journalist in debate with three community representatives: Heng Ji (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Kate Larson (University of Waterloo), and Cynthia Rudin (Duke University).

To support authors who may experience difficulties obtaining Canadian visas, a satellite event will be hosted in Guangzhou, China, from August 29 to August 31, 2025. 

The IJCAI 2025 conference is supported by its sponsors, including the Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ) and Palais des Congrès de Montréal (Diamond Sponsor), GMI Cloud, FinVolution Group, and Baidu and Ant Research as Silver Sponsors. 

Full Program

See full program at https://2025.ijcai.org/ 

Organizers and Institutional Support

Conference Chair: Shlomo Zilberstein University of Massachusetts, Amherst / USA

Program Chair: James Kwok, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology / China

Local Arrangements Committee Chair: Gilles Pesant, Polytechnique Montréal / Canada

Local Publicity chair:  Lina Marsso, Assistant Professor, Polytechnique Montréal / MiLA / Canada

Sponsorship / Exhibit / Industry Day Chair: Nancy Laramée, IVADO, Canada

Lead student journalist on social media: Liliane-Caroline Demers, Polytechnique Montreal

Webmaster: Mehil Shah, Dalhousie University, Canada

More information on the IJCAI’s website: https://2025.ijcai.org

Should you be interested in the parent organization, which began life in California, US, you can find out more here.

Canadian quantum companies chase US DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) $$$ and RIP Raymond Laflamme

Leave a reply

Canada’s quantum community, i.e., three companies, are currently ‘competing’ for US science funding. It seems like an odd choice given all of the news about science funding cuts and funding freezes along with the Trump administration’s chaotic and, increasingly, untrustworthy government management.

On April 3, 2025 the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that approximately 20 companies were embarked on what they describe as Stage A of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) ‘challenge’,

Here’s more from that April 3, 2025 DARPA notice,

Nearly 20 quantum computing companies have been chosen to enter the initial stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), in which they will characterize their unique concepts for creating a useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer within a decade.

QBI, which kicked off in July 2024, aims to determine whether it’s possible to build such a computer much faster than conventional predictions. Specifically, QBI is designed to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation — meaning its computational value exceeds its cost — by the year 2033.

“We selected these companies for Stage A following a review of their written abstracts and daylong oral presentations before a team of U.S. quantum experts to determine whether their proposed concepts might be able to reach industrial utility,” said Joe Altepeter, DARPA QBI program manager. “For the chosen companies, now the real work begins. Stage A is a six-month sprint in which they’ll provide comprehensive technical details of their concepts to show that they hold water and could plausibly lead to a transformative, fault-tolerant quantum computer in under 10 years.”

The following companies* are pursuing a variety of technologies for creating quantum bits (qubits) — the building block for quantum computers — including superconducting qubits, trapped ion qubits, neutral atom qubits, photonic qubits, semiconductor spin qubits, and other novel approaches listed below:

  • Alice & Bob — Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paris, France (superconducting cat qubits)
  • Atlantic Quantum — Cambridge, Massachusetts (fluxonium qubits with co-located cryogenic controls)
  • Atom Computing — Boulder, Colorado (scalable arrays of neutral atoms)
  • Diraq — Sydney, Australia, with operations in Palo Alto, California, and Boston, Massachusetts (silicon CMOS spin qubits)
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise — Houston, Texas (superconducting qubits with advanced fabrication)
  • IBM — Yorktown Heights, NY (quantum computing with modular superconducting processors)
  • IonQ — College Park, Maryland (trapped-ion quantum computing)
  • Nord Quantique — Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada (superconducting qubits with bosonic error correction)
  • Oxford Ionics — Oxford, UK and Boulder, Colorado (trapped-ions)
  • Photonic Inc. — Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (optically-linked silicon spin qubits)
  • Quantinuum — Broomfield, Colorado (trapped-ion quantum charged coupled device (QCCD) architecture)
  • Quantum Motion — London, UK (MOS-based silicon spin qubits)
  • QuEra Computing — Boston, Massachusetts (neutral atom qubits)
  • Rigetti Computing — Berkeley, California (superconducting tunable transmon qubits)
  • Silicon Quantum Computing Pty. Ltd. — Sydney, Australia (precision atom qubits in silicon)
  • Xanadu — Toronto, Canada (photonic quantum computing)

Companies that successfully complete Stage A will move to a yearlong Stage B, during which DARPA will rigorously examine their research and development approach, followed by a final Stage C where the QBI independent verification and validation (IV&V) team will test the companies’ computer hardware.

“During Stage B we’ll thoroughly review all aspects of their R&D plans to see if they can go the distance — not just meet next year’s milestones — and stand the test of trying to build a transformative technology on this kind of a timeline,” Altepeter explained. “Those who make it through Stages A and B will enter the final portion of the program, Stage C, where a full-size IV&V team will conduct real-time, rigorous evaluation of the components, subsystems, and algorithms – everything that goes into building a fault-tolerant quantum computer for real. And we’ll do all these evaluations without slowing the companies down.”

QBI is not a competition between companies [emphasis mine]; rather, it aims to scan the landscape of commercial quantum computing efforts to spot every company on a plausible path to a useful quantum computer.

DARPA recently announced that Microsoft and PsiQuantum are entering the third and final phase of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program, a pilot effort that was expanded to become QBI. Both companies were participating in the second phase of US2QC when the QBI expansion was announced. The final Phase of US2QC has the same technical goals as Stage C of QBI – verification and validation of an industrially useful quantum computer.

“We’ve built and are expanding our world-class IV&V team of U.S. quantum experts, leveraging federal and state test facilities to separate hype from reality in quantum computing,” Altepeter said. “Our team is eager to scrutinize the commercial concepts, designs, R&D plans, and prototype hardware — all with the goal of helping the U.S. government identify and support efforts that are genuinely advancing toward transformative, fault-tolerant quantum computing.”

For more information on QBI visit: www.darpa.mil/QBI.

*16 of the 18 companies are being announced; two are still in negotiations. DARPA will update this announcement once their agreements are signed.

Editor’s Note: This update was edited on April 29, 2025 to add QuEra Computing to the list of companies selected for Stage A.

This sounds like DARPA will pick and choose which bits of technology it may want to develop. Also, who owns the technology? An April 5, 2025 article by Sean Silcoff and Ivan Semeniuk for the Globe and Mail raises the question and answers it (more or less), Note: I have the paper version of the article,

Three Canadian quantum computer companies are in the running for up to US$316-million apiece in funding from the US government if they can prove within eight years that their machines will work at scale.

The companies – Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc. of Toronto , Vancouver-based Photonics Inc. and Nord Quantique from Sherbrooke, Que. – are among 18 groups from Canada, the US, Britain, and Australia that have qualified for the first stage (Stage A) of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).

…

“QBI is not meant to choose a winner and fund your research and development plan, [emphasis mine]” said Dr. Joe Altpeter, the QBI’s program manager. Rather, the program is structured to reward only those that can quickly execute against their roadmaps and deliver something useful.

However, making it through will likely anoint a winner or winners in the global race to develop a working quantum computer. [emphasis mine]

“I can’t think of any other program that has generated this much excitement and interest from startups and big companies – and a lot of investors know about it,” said Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu’s founder and chief executive officer [CEO].

Quantum computer developers have collectively raised and spend billions of dollars so far, and QBI will likely influence financiers in determining who to continue backing.

Conversely, “groups that don’t get in will be challenged to raise venture capital,” said Ray [Raymond] Laflamme, co-chair of the federal Quantum Advisory Council. The council has recommended the Canadian government provide matching funds [emphasis mine] to any domestic company that makes it through QBI.

Council co-chair Stephanie Simmons, who is also the founder and chief quantum officer [CQO] of Photonic, said the US government will gain access to “deep knowledge that other governments won’t have” [emphasis mine] through QBI.

“That will give them geopolitical and other advantages [emphasis mine] that are important in the upcoming economy.” Creating a matching program here would mean “This information would also be owned by the Canadian government.”

…

“I would love to be proved surprised if companies make it through the gauntlet, you’re really will to advocate for them inside the US government in rooms that they can’t go to and say, ‘Look, we did our best to show this doesn’t work, these guys made it, they can really build this thing,'” he [Dr. Joe Altpeter] said adding that the program was designed to a “simple, cheap way” to determine that.

Mr. Laflamme agreed that QBI “is a very smart way for the US to keep at the front. By tis, the US will who has the lead in the world and people are, everywhere.” [p. B11 paper version]

…

Clearly, the US has much to gain from this ‘non-competition’. It’s not clear to me what Canada will gain.

One quick note. D-Wave Systems is mentioned in Silcoff’s and Semeniuk’s April 5, 2025 article and described as a Canadian company. That is questionable. It was headquartered in the Vancouver area, British Columbia, Canada for a number of years but is now, according to its Wikipedia entry, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, US (see the sidebar). The company retains laboratories and offices in British Columbia.

It would seem that Silcoff’s and Semeniuk’s April 5, 2025 article hosted one of M. Laflamme’s last interviews.

RIP Raymond Laflamme, July 19, 1960 – June 19, 2025

I’ve had to interview more than one ‘horse’s behind’ (two members of the forestry faculty at the University of British Columbia spring to mind); M. Laflamme was most assuredly not one of them. It was a privilege to interview him for a May 11, 2015 posting about Research2Reality, a Canadian social media engagement project (scroll down to the subhead with his name),

Who convinces a genius that he’s gotten an important cosmological concept wrong or ignored it? Alongside Don Page, Laflamme accomplished that feat as one of Stephen Hawking’s PhD students at the University of Cambridge. Today (May 11, 2015), Laflamme is (from his Wikipedia entry)

… co-founder and current director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. He is also a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and an associate faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Laflamme is currently a Canada Research Chair in Quantum Information.

…

The Council of Canadian Academies’ (CCA) July 22, 2025 The Advance newsletter (received via email) held this notice, Note: A link has been removed,

…

And Ray Laflamme, the theoretical physicist and Canada Research Chair in Quantum Information, died on June 19 [2025] following a lengthy battle with cancer. Laflamme, founding director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, served as chair of our Expert Panel on the Responsible Adoption of Quantum Technologies. …

I have a commentary on the CCA report issued by Laflamme and his expert panel. The report was published in November 2023 and my commentary published in two parts about 15 months later,

To wildly paraphrase John Donne (For Whom the Bell Tolls), M. Laflamme’s death diminishes us but more importantly his life enhanced us all in ways both small and large. Thank you.

And the quantum goes on

Members of the Canadian quantum community that M. Laflamme helped build have recently announced a breakthrough. From a July 10, 2025 TRIUMF news release (also on Quantum Wire), Note: A link has been removed,

A cross-Canada team of researchers have brought quantum and generative AI together to prepare for the Large Hadron Collider’s next upgrade.

In the world of collider physics, simulations play a key role in analyzing data from particle accelerators. Now, a cross-Canada effort is combining quantum with generative AI to create novel simulation models for the next big upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the world’s largest particle accelerator [located at the European particle physics laboratory CERN, in Switzerland].

In a paper published in npj Quantum Information, a team that includes researchers from TRIUMF, Perimeter Institute, and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) are the first to use annealing quantum computing and deep generative AI to create simulations that are fast, accurate, and computationally efficient. If the models continue to improve, they could represent a new way to create synthetic data to help with analysis in particle collisions

Why simulations are essential for collider physics

Simulations broadly assist collider physics researchers in two ways. First, researchers use them to statistically match observed data to theoretical models. Second, scientists use simulated data to help optimize the design of the data analysis, for instance by isolating the signal they are studying from irrelevant background events.

“To do the data analysis at the LHC, you need to create copious amounts of simulations of collision events,” explains Wojciech Fedorko, one of the principal investigators on the paper and Deputy Department Head, Scientific Computing at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre in Vancouver. “Basically, you take your hypothesis, and you simulate it under multiple scenarios. One of those scenarios will statistically best match the real data that has been produced in the real experiment.”

Currently, the LHC is preparing for a major shutdown in anticipation of its high luminosity upgrade. When it comes back online, it will require more complex simulations that are reliably accurate, fast to produce, and computationally efficient. Those requirements have the potential to create a bottleneck, as the computational power required to create these simulations will no longer be feasible.

“Simulations are projected to cost millions of CPU years annually when the high luminosity LHC turns on,” says Javier Toledo-Marín, a researcher scientist jointly appointed at Perimeter Institute and TRIUMF. “It’s financially and environmentally unsustainable to keep doing business as usual.”

When quantum and generative AI collide 

Particle physicists use specialized detectors called calorimeters to measure the energy released by the showers of particles that result from collisions. Scientists combine the readings from these and other detectors to piece together what happened at the initial collision. It’s through this process of comparing simulations to experimental data that researchers discovered the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. Compared to the other sub-detector systems within the LHC experiments, calorimeters and the data they produce are the most computationally intensive to simulate, and as such they represent a major opportunity for efficiency gains.

In 2022, a scientific “challenge” was issued by researchers seeking to spur rapid advances in calorimeter computations, in an attempt to address the coming computational bottleneck at the LHC. Named the “CaloChallenge,” the challenge provided datasets based on LHC experiments for teams to develop and benchmark simulations of calorimeter readings. Fedorko and the team are the only ones so far to take a full-scale quantum approach, thanks to an assist from D-Wave Quantum Inc.’s annealing quantum computing technology.

Annealing quantum computing is a process that is usually used to find the lowest-energy state for a system or a state near to the lowest energy one, which is useful for problems involving optimization.

After discussing with D-Wave, Fedorko, Toledo-Marín, and the rest of the team determined that D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers could be used for simulation generation. You just need to use annealing to manipulate qubits (the smallest bits of quantum information) in an unconventional way.

“In the D-Wave quantum processor, there is a mechanism that ensures the ratio between the ‘bias’ on a given qubit and the ‘weight’ linking it to another qubit is the same throughout the annealing process. With the help of D-Wave, the team realized that they could use this mechanism to instead guarantee outcomes for a subset of the qubits on a device. “We basically hijacked that mechanism to fix in place some of the spins,” says Fedorko. “This mechanism can be used to ‘condition’ the processor – for example, generate showers with specific desired properties – like the energy of a particle impinging on the calorimeter.”

The end result: an unconventional way to use annealing quantum computing to generate high-quality synthetic data for analyzing particle collisions.

The next phase of collider physics simulations

The published result is important because of its performance in three metrics: the speed to generate the simulations, their accuracy, and how much computational resources they require. “For speed, we are in the top bound of results published by other teams and our accuracy is above average,” Toledo-Marín says. “What makes our framework competitive is really the unique combination of several factors – speed, accuracy, and energy consumption.”

Essentially, many types of quantum processing units (QPU) must be kept at an extremely low temperature. But giving it multiple tasks doesn’t significantly impact its energy requirements. A standard graphics processing unit (GPU), by contrast, will increase its energy use for each job it receives. As advanced GPUs become more and more power-hungry, QPUs by contrast can potentially scale up without leading to increasing computational energy requirements.

Looking forward, the team is excited to test their models on new incoming data so they can finetune their models, increasing both speed and accuracy. If all goes well, annealing quantum computing could become an essential aspect of generating simulations.

“It’s a good example of being able to scale something in the field of quantum machine learning to something practical that can potentially be deployed,” says Toledo-Marín.

The authors are grateful for the support of their many funders and contributors, which include the University of British Columbia, the University of Virginia, the NRC, D-Wave, and MITACS [originally funded as: Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems; now a nonprofit research organization].

A joint July 10, 2025 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and TRIUMF news release on Newswise (also on the Quantum Insider but published July 11, 2025) is markedly shorter more ‘boosterish’ than what appears to be the TRIUMF news release,

In a landmark achievement for Canadian science, a team of scientists led by TRIUMF and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics have unveiled transformative research that – for the first time – merges quantum computing techniques with advanced AI to model complex simulations in a fast, accurate and energy-efficient way.

“This is a uniquely Canadian success story,” said Wojciech Fedorko, Deputy Department Head, Scientific Computing at TRIUMF. “Uniting the expertise from our country’s research institutions and industry leaders has not only advanced our ability to carry out fundamental research, but also demonstrated Canada’s ability to lead the world in quantum and AI innovation.”

…

In any event, here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Conditioned quantum-assisted deep generative surrogate for particle-calorimeter interactions by J. Quetzalcóatl Toledo-Marín, Sebastian Gonzalez, Hao Jia, Ian Lu, Deniz Sogutlu, Abhishek Abhishek, Colin Gay, Eric Paquet, Roger G. Melko, Geoffrey C. Fox, Maximilian Swiatlowski & Wojciech Fedorko. npj Quantum Information volume 11, Article number: 114 (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-025-01040-x Published: 07 July 2025

This paper is open access.

Raymond Julien Joseph Laflamme (July 19, 1960 – June 19, 2025))

[image downloaded from https://uwaterloo.ca/news/global-impact/opinion-canadas-stake-quantum-race]

Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins hybrid event: Perimeter Institute (PI) free tickets available on Monday, May 26, at 9 am ET

Leave a reply

As is usual for the Perimeter Institute (PI) for Theoretical Physics, the “Battle of the Big Bang …” event itself won’t take place until sometime in June 2025 but, if you can attend in person, here are the details for getting a ticket or two this coming Monday, from a May 23, 2025 PI announcement (received via email),

Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins

Niayesh Afshordi

Wednesday, June 4 [2025] at 7:00 pm ET

Join us for a lecture with Niayesh Afshordi, a theoretical astrophysicist and professor at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

The story of the universe’s origins is one of the greatest mysteries in science. From the explosive birth of the cosmos to the enigmatic nature of time and space, we are continually challenged by paradoxes that defy current understanding. In this public talk, we shall explore the triumphs and debates that shape modern cosmology, and the novel quests to uncover our cosmic origins. I will also highlight the pioneering contributions of my friend and colleague, Lee Smolin. His groundbreaking ideas on quantum gravity, the nature of time, and cosmological evolution have sparked new directions in the search for a deeper theory of the universe. Together, we will journey through the frontiers of physics, exploring how new theories and astronomical observations might offer clues to the next great paradigm shift. Whether you’re a science enthusiast or just curious about the cosmos, join us for a conversation on the past, present, and future of our understanding of the universe.

Don’t miss out! Free tickets to attend this event in person will become available on Monday, May 26 [2025], at 9 am ET. 

In-Person Tickets

If you didn’t get tickets for the lecture, not to worry – you can always catch the livestream on our website or watch it on YouTube after the fact.

Watch Online

I have more information from the event registration page,

Location

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics 31 Caroline Street North Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5

Agenda

6:00 p.m.

Doors Open

Perimeter’s main floor Atrium will be open for ticket holders, with researchers available to answer science questions until the talk begins.

6:45 p.m. – 6:45 p.m.

Doors Close

Theater doors close to ensure all guests have enough time to enter and be seated by our ushers.

7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Public Talk

The talk will begin at 7:00 PM, offering a live stream for virtual attendees. This will include a full presentation in the Theatre as well as a Q&A session.

8:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Atrium (Optional)

After the talk, head to the Atrium to mingle with other attendees and meet the speaker.

….

About the Speaker

Niayesh Afshordi is a theoretical astrophysicist and professor at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His research explores the frontiers of cosmology, gravity, and quantum physics, with a focus on black holes and the origins of the universe. He is the co-author of the forthcoming popular science book Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins (University of Chicago Press, 2025), which reexamines the history and future of the cosmos through the lens of cutting-edge theory and observation.

Enjoy! For those who cannot attend in person, “… you can always catch the livestream on our website or watch it on YouTube after the fact. [https://www.youtube.com/@PIOutreach]” One last note , Afshordi’s (co-authored with Phil Halper) new book “Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins” is being released on May 29, 2025.

Stay warm with smart fabric that can heat up by 30°C after 10 minutes exposure to the sun

Leave a reply

Presumably this material would be used for clothing worn in much colder climates than what we experience in the Pacific Northwest where even during the winter a hike of 30°C would have you sweating like a pig.

A January 23, 2025 news item on phys.org announces the latest news about the fast-heating smart fabric,

A new type of cloth developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo [Ontario, Canada] can heat up when exposed to the sun thanks to innovative nanoparticles embedded in the fabric’s fibers. This advance represents an innovative and environmentally friendly option for staying warm in the winter.

…

A demonstration of how stretchy the smart fabric is. The fabric can stretch out by as much as five times its original shape. (University of Waterloo)

A January 23, 2025 University of Waterloo news release, which originated the news item, delves further into heated winter clothes and their latest collaborative research, Note: A link has been removed,

Wearable heated clothing typically relies on metals or ceramic heating elements to heat up and an external power source, which could pose safety risks for users.

This new cloth incorporates conductive polymer nanoparticles that can heat up to 30degrees Celsius when exposed to sunlight. The design requires no external power and can also change colour to visually monitor temperature fluctuations.

“The magic behind the temperature-sensitive colour change lies in the combination of nanoparticles embedded in the polymer fibres,” said Yuning Li, a professor in Waterloo’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and part of the research team that includes Chaoxia Wang and Fangqing Ge from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University in China.

“The nanoparticles are activated by sunlight, enabling the fabric to absorb heat and convert it into warmth.”

The fibre is created using a scalable wet-spinning process, combining polyaniline and polydopamine nanoparticles to enhance light absorption and improve photothermal conversion. Thermoplastic polyurethane serves as the spinning matrix, while thermochromic dyes enable the reversible color-changing feature. The resultant fiber can be woven into fabric for wearable applications.

n addition to its temperature-changing capability, the Waterloo researcher’s new fabric can stretch out by as much as five times its original shape and withstand as much as two-dozen washings while still maintaining its function and appearance. Its reversible colour-changing ability provides a built-in temperature monitoring feature to ensure the wearer’s safety and convenience.

“We prioritized durability, ensuring the fabric could withstand repeated use and environmental exposure while maintaining its innovative properties,” said Li.

The Waterloo team is exploring more cost-effective alternatives to polydopamine to make the smart fabric technology more accessible. Future developments will focus on scaling the production process and reducing costs without compromising on the fabric’s innovative properties.

The fabric’s potential applications include aiding in cold rescue situations and solar-powered pet clothing to help keep them comfortable when outside during the winter.

The study was recently published in the Journal of Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Color tunable photo-thermochromic elastic fiber for flexible wearable heater by Fangqing Ge, Jun Peng, Jialing Tan, Weidong Yu, Yuning Li, & Chaoxia Wang. Journal of Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials Volume 7, article number 173, (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-024-00994-4 Published: 11 October 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

For some earlier work from this international collaboration, I have a November 1, 2024 posting about energy harvesting fabric.