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Q-CAB Experts to Support Europe’s 2026 Quantum Roadmaps

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April 29, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

A Quantum Computing Advisory Board (Q-CAB) launched on April 28, 2026, will directly inform Europe’s quantum computing roadmaps as the field shifts from noisy intermediate-scale quantum technology toward more reliable, fault-tolerant systems in the coming years. The board’s formation coincides with the suspension of three open calls under the Horizon Europe Cluster 4 funding program. Professor Peter Zoller will chair the Q-CAB, bringing expertise to evaluating technological approaches and guiding strategic decisions. “The Quantum Computing Advisory Board brings together distinguished scientific leaders whose independent, evidence-based advice will be essential to our work,” says Tommaso Calarco, coordinator of the board, emphasizing the critical role of impartial assessment in focusing European resources.

European Commission Leverages Q-CAB for Quantum Strategy

This initiative, formally launched on April 28, 2026, is designed to provide independent, evidence-based advice on investments, procurements, and standards across Europe, directly informing the 2026 QES quantum-computing roadmaps. “As quantum computing advances from the NISQ era toward fault-tolerant systems, their expertise will help the European Commission to assess progress in the field, refine strategic priorities, and focus resources where they can make the greatest difference,” Calarco continued, highlighting the board’s commitment to maximizing the impact of European quantum initiatives.

NISQ Era Transition to Fault-Tolerant Systems Targeted by 2026

Quantum computing is currently shifting away from the limitations of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) technology and toward the stability of fault-tolerant architectures within the next two to three years. This transition is the central focus of the newly launched Quantum Computing Advisory Board (Q-CAB), established to guide strategic decisions across Europe and align with the 2026 QES quantum-computing roadmaps. Q-CAB will evaluate technological approaches and provide evidence-based recommendations for investments, procurements, and standardization efforts, impacting the European Commission, EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, and Chips Joint Undertaking. The board’s expertise will refine strategic priorities and direct resources toward areas promising the greatest impact as quantum computing matures, demanding careful assessment of progress and a focused allocation of resources to achieve functional, scalable quantum systems. The Q-CAB’s input will be instrumental in this complex transition and ensuring Europe remains competitive in the rapidly evolving quantum technology space.

“The Quantum Computing Assessment Board brings together distinguished scientific leaders whose independent, evidence-based advice will be essential to our work”, says Tommaso Calarco, “As quantum computing advances from the NISQ era towards fault-tolerant systems, their expertise will help the European Commission to assess progress in the field, refine strategic priorities, and focus resources where they can make the greatest difference.

Tommaso Calarco
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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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