Javier Aizpurua, scientific director of BasQ: ‘The quantum computer will generate hundreds of jobs in the Basque Country’.
February 28, 2025The head of BasQ - Basque Quantum - explains the paradigm shift that this scientific breakthrough will bring. IBM's quantum computer will strengthen the Basque Country's presence in the world's scientific ecosystem.
2025 will be a special year for science in the Basque Country. Coinciding with the celebration of the international year of Quantum Science and Technology proclaimed by UNESCO, a new scientific infrastructure will strengthen the role of the Basque Country on the international scientific scene.
The Basque Government's BasQ -Basque Quantum- Strategy, with the participation of the Provincial Councils of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and promoted by Ikerbasque, is going to take a very important step in the development of its objectives: the start-up, in the new Ikerbasque building, of the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center, the infrastructure that will house IBM's powerful quantum computer.
Challenges and opportunities
Since December 2023, Javier Aizpurua has been in charge of the scientific management of BasQ, for the development and deployment of the Basque Quantum Strategy. During his mandate, he has promoted different lines of research, coordinating the actions of the different institutions, as well as with relevant companies, such as IBM.
On the BasQ website, Aizpurua reviews the commitment to quantum technology in the Basque Country, the scientific challenges faced, the beginning of a new technological era and the social benefits it will bring to Basque society.
Throughout 2025, and once the construction work on the Ikerbasque building in Donostia has been completed, IBM will begin to install the quantum infrastructure. Its start-up - scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025 - will enable the Basque Country to become part of IBM's global network of quantum centres (along with the United States, Canada, Germany, South Korea and Japan), to the benefit of the advancement of quantum research in general and the development of the Basque scientific ecosystem in particular.
The installation of the future computer, as well as the development of BasQ's entire strategy, aims to turn the Basque Country into an international benchmark in the field of Quantum Technologies: to create and strengthen a solid quantum scientific community, to generate and attract highly specialised talent, as well as to commit to its development in the industrial and business spheres.
