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SA QuTI Funds UP Quantum Science With Five-Year Investment

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July 8, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

The University of Pretoria will become a central hub for quantum research in South Africa, hosting a new node of the South African Quantum Technology Initiative (SA QuTI) with five years of funding from the national Department of Science, Technology and Innovation. Establishing UP Quantum Science and Technology (UPQuST) as one of six nationally funded quantum research hubs, the initiative will integrate researchers across physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, engineering, and agriculture to develop practical quantum technologies. “Quantum technologies are recognized globally as strategic capabilities that will shape future economies,” said Professor Sunil Maharaj, UP’s Vice-Principal for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education. This investment aims to position South Africa as a creator of future technologies, rather than simply an adopter, in a field expected to transform industries within the next decade.

This five-year investment from the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation signals a concentrated effort to establish domestic expertise in a field expected to reshape multiple industries. Researchers will investigate applications ranging from early detection of crop diseases and improved mineral processing to more accurate medical diagnostics and enhanced cybersecurity measures. Professor Tjaart Krüger, who leads UPQuST, articulated the ambition to move beyond simply adopting quantum innovations developed elsewhere. “Our ambition is to build South African capability in quantum computing, sensing and metrology while developing technologies that solve real-world challenges,” he said. The node will concentrate on quantum computing, sensing, and metrology, with emerging technologies like quantum-enhanced deepfake detection and ransomware analysis also under investigation. Jodie Robbertse, project manager of SA QuTI, explained that UP was selected due to its “strong research capability, collaborative culture and ability to translate scientific excellence into meaningful impact,” solidifying its role in building a nationally competitive quantum ecosystem.

The University of Pretoria brings together internationally recognised expertise across multiple disciplines and has demonstrated the capacity to transform research into innovation.

Jodie Robbertse, project manager of SA QuTI

The rapidly evolving field of quantum technology is witnessing increasing convergence across multiple scientific disciplines, moving beyond purely physics-based approaches toward practical applications. This broad, interdisciplinary approach distinguishes UPQuST from many emerging quantum hubs focused primarily on computing and physics. The node will concentrate on three strategic areas: quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum metrology, the science of ultra-precise measurement, with the potential to unlock advances across diverse sectors. Researchers at UPQuST are already exploring applications with immediate relevance, including technologies to detect crop diseases earlier and improve mineral exploration. The node will investigate emerging technologies such as quantum-enhanced tools for detecting deepfakes and analyzing ransomware threats, helping strengthen digital trust and improve resilience against increasingly sophisticated cybercrime. UPQuST will foster international collaborations, including connections to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, strengthening South Africa’s position within the global quantum ecosystem and ensuring its participation in the coming quantum economy.

Each SA QuTI node contributes unique strengths to a national quantum ecosystem.

Jodie Robbertse, project manager of SA QuTI
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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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