Quantum Networks, Quantum Networking

GÉANT and Quantum Internet Alliance team up to build Europe’s quantum networks

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September 14, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

GÉANT CEO Lise Fuhr and Quantum Internet Alliance Director Stephanie Wehner formalized a collaboration on September 8, 2026, signing a Memorandum of Understanding at GÉANT offices in Amsterdam. The agreement focuses on moving quantum networking technologies beyond laboratory settings and into field trials, potentially establishing cross-border networks across Europe. “GÉANT and European NRENs have an important role to play in developing quantum networking in Europe,” said Fuhr, as the partnership aims to combine GÉANT’s network infrastructure expertise with QIA’s advancements across the quantum networking value chain.

GÉANT and QIA MoU: Strengthening Europe’s Quantum Networking Future

The Memorandum of Understanding between GÉANT and the Quantum Internet Alliance, formalized on September 8, 2026, directly addresses the critical need to move quantum networking beyond isolated laboratory settings and into practical testing environments. This agreement prioritizes the transition of quantum technologies from prototypes to field trials, potentially extending to cross-border network deployments, a step essential for realizing a functional quantum internet across Europe. The signing at GÉANT offices in Amsterdam signifies a concrete commitment to collaborative action, moving beyond preliminary discussions to a structured framework for joint development.

This partnership utilizes the distinct strengths of each organization; GÉANT contributes decades of experience in managing complex network infrastructure, cross-border connectivity, and community coordination, while QIA brings specialized expertise across the entire quantum networking value chain, the company says. This includes technology development, system integration, and the fostering of Europe’s emerging quantum internet ecosystem.

Through the GÉANT Association, the MoU extends the reach of this collaboration to European National Research and Education Networks, or NRENs, streamlining efforts and aligning standards to avoid duplication and fragmentation. QIA gains access to GÉANT’s established pan-European network infrastructure and diverse user base, accelerating the deployment and adoption of quantum internet technologies throughout the continent.

“Combining the complementary strengths of GÉANT, our community of NRENs, and the QIA, we contribute to transformative advancements in Europe’s quantum ecosystem.” The MoU establishes a framework for strengthened engagement and knowledge exchange across several key areas, including the exploration of how existing network infrastructure and test environments can support the development and validation of quantum internet technologies. Specifically, the organizations will investigate opportunities for conducting field trials and demonstrations within realistic network settings, providing important data on performance and scalability.

Beyond infrastructure, the agreement also focuses on the important aspects of system interoperability and operational requirements for deploying these emerging technologies. Dialogue will center on network architectures, software, and systems, ensuring that different quantum networking components can seamlessly communicate and function together. This emphasis on interoperability is vital for building a cohesive and scalable quantum internet, rather than a collection of isolated systems.

QIA Director Stephanie Wehner emphasized the importance of a comprehensive ecosystem, stating, “QIA’s mission is to realise a global Quantum Internet made in Europe. As part of this mission, it is important to establish the ecosystem covering the entire value chain. I am excited to connect our members with Europe’s research and education networking community.” GÉANT and European NRENs will play an important role, and working together creates new opportunities to put quantum networking into practice, validate ideas, explore future use cases and help accelerate progress towards our mission.

GÉANT’s role extends to supporting innovation and knowledge-sharing within its member community, while QIA will leverage its Technology Forum and technical teams to facilitate exchange with GÉANT’s SIG-Quantum structure, according to the company. This collaborative approach will also extend to contributions to relevant European initiatives and policy frameworks, ensuring that quantum networking development aligns with broader strategic goals. The agreement’s scope encompasses the exploration of potential use cases, encouraging wider participation, and exchanging perspectives on the future trajectory of quantum networking in Europe, solidifying a path toward a fully realized quantum internet infrastructure.

GÉANT and European NRENs have an important role to play in developing quantum networking in Europe. Combining the complementary strengths of GÉANT, our community of NRENs, and the QIA, we contribute to transformative advancements in Europe’s quantum ecosystem.

Lise Fuhr, CEO at GÉANT
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Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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