Quantum Reality Check: What Is Coming This Autumn

The Quantum Reality Check is the joint programme of weXelerate and the FFG that helps Austrian companies work out where quantum technology becomes relevant to them, and when. It runs from first orientation through to concrete use cases, and it is free of charge because the FFG funds it.

The autumn schedule is dense. Here is what is open.

2 October, online. Webinar: Quantum Sensing

Everyone is waiting for the quantum computer. Quantum sensing is already in use, and the interesting question is what for.

While quantum computing still needs years to reach productive deployment, atomic clocks, optically pumped magnetometers and quantum gravimeters are commercially available today, and the first industrial demonstrators are running.

The session works through the sensing principles one at a time, covering magnetometry, gravimetry, timing, navigation and imaging, and asks of each one what is deployable now and what remains research. It also covers the honest inverse: where established measurement technology stays the better choice.

If your company is investing in sensing, measurement or testing right now, this is the session that tells you whether quantum belongs on your roadmap or not yet.

Sixty minutes, roughly 35 minutes of input plus questions. Open to everyone, free.

12 October, Innsbruck. Roundtable: Quantum Computing and AI

First use cases, honestly assessed, among peers and without a vendor filter.

Some corporates have already run optimisation and simulation problems on quantum hardware, benchmarked them against classical methods, and combined them with machine learning. The results are informative, including where they are sobering.

The afternoon opens with an expert briefing on the state of play covering hardware, algorithms and realistic time horizons, then moves to lessons learned from live corporate projects: what was tested, what was measured, what it cost.

A small curated group of ten to fifteen people from corporates, moderated, closed door under Chatham House rule. Runs 13:00 to 16:00 with check-in from 12:30.

In the evening we join the FFG's Quantum Austria closing forum, which runs in Innsbruck the same day. A fish-bowl panel in the Erwin Schrödinger lecture hall at the University of Innsbruck from 17:00, followed by a reception at Campus Technikerstraße from 18:00.

Innsbruck is not an arbitrary choice. The University of Innsbruck and the IQOQI have been at the top of quantum physics for decades, and two of the most relevant European quantum computing companies, AQT and ParityQC, came out of that environment.

A note on the following day. The Quantum Innovation Forum Austria runs on 13 October, 9:00 to 15:00, at the BTV Stadtforum, with AQT, ParityQC, IBM, planqc, voestalpine, Erste Group, BCG and several VCs. It is free but it is a separate event with separate registration. The roundtable registration does not cover it.

Who the roundtable is for: CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, heads of data and AI, and leaders in R&D, simulation and process optimisation, plus innovation leads in banking, energy, logistics, industry, pharma and chemicals, and the public sector.

Registration is an expression of interest. We keep the group deliberately small and select for thematic fit so that the exchange is useful for everyone in it.

25 and 26 November. Quantum Ideation Days

The high point of the programme, and what the whole year has been building towards.

A hackathon-style format that does not just let companies bring their use cases, but helps them find their use cases in the first place. Working with experts, researchers, startups and funding specialists, those turn into concrete project initiatives.

Organised by the FFG together with what a venture. Participants also get access to Future Forward 2026, which runs at our hub on 26 November.

Expressions of interest are open now.

Also worth knowing

The FFG short documentary "Quantum Nation" is a tour through the Austrian quantum ecosystem, a hundred years after quantum mechanics was formulated. It features Gregor Weihs, coordinator of the Quantum Science Austria cluster of excellence, Rupert Ursin on quantum cryptography over Europe's fibre networks, and Sonja Bruckner of the Software Competence Center Hagenberg on what separates quantum from classical computing.

It is the video to send to a colleague or to your management when you want to explain why this goes beyond physics.

Qubit Founders launched this month as the counterpart on the research side, for scientists thinking about spinning out. See qubitfounders.eu.

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Full programme and all upcoming dates at quantum.wexelerate.com. To register for any format, write to ecosystem@wexelerate.com.

The Quantum Reality Check is run by weXelerate together with the FFG.