Quantum Security, Quantum Policy

Plan for quantum-safe systems due by end of 2027 for some

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October 16, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

Singaporean organizations face a firm deadline of March 31, 2027, to submit quantum-safe migration plans for their Critical Information Infrastructure to the Cyber Security Agency (CSA). This requirement signals immediate action as advances in quantum computing pose a growing threat to existing digital security measures, with attackers potentially harvesting encrypted data for future decryption.

The CSA recommends organizations not considered Critical Information Infrastructure have a quantum-safe migration plan in place by the end of 2027, and is offering a grant to support pilot projects and build experience with the necessary transition. “While the exact timeline of this threat remains uncertain, attackers are already expected to be stealing encrypted data today,” the agency notes.

Singapore’s 2027 Deadline for Quantum-Safe Migration Plans

This recommendation signals a broad push for preparedness against potential threats from quantum computing, extending beyond the most vital systems. The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) is encouraging proactive planning across sectors, acknowledging that the transition to quantum-safe cryptography will be a multi-year undertaking. While complete migration can occur later, initiating the planning phase now allows organizations to assess risks and begin building internal expertise.

The CSA is supplementing this guidance with the Quantum-Safe Kickstarter Grant, designed to facilitate practical experimentation with quantum-safe solutions. Non-government organizations registered and incorporated in Singapore can apply for the grant to pilot these technologies either independently or in partnership with solution providers. The agency intends to support organizations in gaining hands-on experience, generating insights that can benefit the wider ecosystem, and building confidence in the migration process.

Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to projects demonstrating a significant impact on Singapore’s quantum-safe capabilities. This deadline is firm, requiring a concrete roadmap for protecting essential systems against future quantum-based attacks. Any new procurement of critical information infrastructure systems from 2028 onward must incorporate quantum-safe considerations into the selection process.

This proactive requirement prevents organizations from locking themselves into vulnerable technologies and ensures that future investments align with long-term security needs. “Advances in quantum computing threaten to break the cryptography that protects today’s digital infrastructure,” the CSA stated in its guidance.

The CSA also outlined the scope of pilot reports it expects from grant recipients, emphasizing the need for a clear description of the problem statement, migration activity, chosen solutions and project objectives. These reports, even if preliminary or inconclusive, will be valuable in understanding the challenges and opportunities associated with quantum-safe migration.

The agency is prepared to offer further support, including technical consultancies, to help organizations build on their initial pilots and develop deeper capabilities. The CSA acknowledges that quantum-safe migration is an evolving field, and all outcomes, regardless of the results, can contribute to a more secure future.

Kickstarter Grant Supports CII and Non-CII Pilot Projects

Funding is now available to help organizations in Singapore proactively address the looming threat of quantum computing to existing cryptographic systems. The Quantum-Safe Kickstarter Grant offers up to 70% coverage of project costs for organizations piloting and evaluating quantum-safe solutions, requiring a 30% cash contribution from applicants. This financial support is intended to build practical experience with quantum-safe migration and generate lessons applicable across the wider technology ecosystem.

The grant program acknowledges the dual-track approach to quantum-safe security, allowing for exploration of technologies beyond post-quantum cryptography. Limited trials of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) or other quantum-enabled security technologies are eligible, specifically for use cases demanding heightened assurance.

Project timelines are structured to ensure rapid implementation, with a six-month completion window from the date of grant award. Applicants nearing the end of the grant period must account for review times, as applications are assessed on a first-come, first-served basis. While extensions may be granted with justification, requests must be submitted before the original completion date of October 31, 2027. The CSA aims to provide an outcome on applications within four weeks of receiving a complete application.

The grant program is designed to support a broad range of organizations, recognizing that the need for quantum-safe migration extends beyond critical information infrastructure (CII). CII owners will need to submit their quantum-safe migration plans to CSA by March 31, 2027, and complete their migration of CII systems by December 31, 2031.

The CSA will use insights gained from these pilot projects to inform future guidance and best practices. Aggregated or anonymized findings will be shared through consolidated reports and public events, though individual organization reports will not be published without explicit consent. Active project ownership is expected from grant recipients, who will lead scoping, execution, and reporting.

Grant Funding Structure: 70/30 Cost-Sharing and Disbursement

The Quantum-Safe Kickstarter Grant will cover up to 70 percent of project costs, requiring recipient organizations to contribute the remaining 30 percent through cash, excluding internal manpower expenses. This cost-sharing model is designed to encourage active investment and ownership of the quantum-safe migration process, rather than solely relying on external funding. Organizations selecting a solution provider for implementation can receive an initial disbursement of 50 percent of the grant upon project approval, signing of the Letter of Award and a finalized commercial agreement.

The remaining 50 percent is then released following acceptance of the project report. An alternative disbursement option allows organizations to conduct the project in-house, also receiving an initial 50 percent upon approval and agreement, with the final 50 percent contingent on report acceptance.

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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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