One Year of INQUBATOR: On the Path to Quantum Computing for Practical Applications

Roughly one year after the launch of the project »INQUBATOR – Quantum Computing Testing and Consulting Center for Businesses«, the partners met for the first joint project meeting at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF in Freiburg, Germany. Representatives of the consortium – the Fraunhofer Institutes IAF, IAO, IPA, and ITWM, as well as the project management organization VDI – came together with the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen (GWDG), which represents the partner project QUICS. Together, they used the event to discuss the current project status and the next steps in expanding INQUBATOR.

As the project’s coordinator, Fraunhofer IAF welcomed the participants to an intensive working session, during which the results of the first project phase were presented and discussed. The focus was on the four ongoing use cases, which are being carried out by the participating Fraunhofer Institutes together with industry partners. The project teams shared insights into their work so far and highlighted the potential of quantum computing for specific industrial applications.

Another key topic was the presentation of the results from the company survey conducted as part of the project. The survey examines the current state, existing needs, and expectations of companies regarding the use and further development of quantum computing. The results provide valuable insights for tailoring INQUBATOR's consulting and support services to actual industry needs.

Open Call a Success: Four Additional Use Cases Get Underway

The results of the first Open Call for Use Cases, which has since been successfully concluded, were also presented. Four additional use cases were selected from the submitted proposals. Over the coming year, these will be further developed and investigated by the respective Fraunhofer partner institutes together with the submitting industry companies. This brings the total number of use cases addressed within INQUBATOR to eight. The new use cases will be announced on the project website shortly.

“The large number of submissions clearly shows how strong the industry's interest and need are to tap into the potential of quantum computing for their own practical applications,” says Dr. Walter Hahn, INQUBATOR project coordinator at Fraunhofer IAF. “However, this can only be achieved together – and that is exactly what INQUBATOR stands for: a bridge between research and industry that makes it easier for companies to get started with quantum computing.”

The exchange with the partner project QUICS was also on the agenda. Both initiatives share the goal of making quantum computing more accessible to companies and gathering valuable experience for transferring the technology into industrial practice. The consortium of QUICS consists of GWDG, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover, the L3S Research Center, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. The dialogue between the two projects enables close knowledge and experience sharing within the German quantum computing ecosystem. The Lower Saxony-based partner project QUICS has also launched its own Open Call for Use Cases, which is still ongoing and accepting submissions.

Outlook: Unlocking Quantum Computing Potential Together

With the successful conclusion of the first project year and the expansion of the use case portfolio, an important milestone has been reached. In the upcoming project phases, INQUBATOR will continue to provide companies with low-threshold access to quantum computing and, together with industry partners, identify and unlock concrete potential for future applications.

The project meeting took place on September 22, 2026, at Fraunhofer IAF in Freiburg, Germany.

The INQUBATOR project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space under grant number 13N17420.