Feeding Future Computers
Researchers from Freie Universität Berlin join colleagues from across four continents in a global “Quantum Software Alliance”
Jul 29, 2026
Quantum computers require completely new software: Jens Eisert’s team is working on the interface between complex mathematical reasoning and practical applications.
Image Credit: Google Quantum AI
The main task of the alliance is to solidify the enormous progress in hardware for quantum computers with new algorithmic applications. By doing so scientists will be able to fully utilize their potential for more refined research, which will in turn lead to more efficient industrial production and, ultimately, a better quality of life in general.
Why is this important?
There is concrete evidence that we will be able to solve pressing problems by using this technology.
Who has a growing interest in quantum computing?
Companies that manufacture things are increasingly interested in how they might use quantum computing. Indirectly, however, the entire world will benefit because we will be able to completely rethink how we approach chemistry, medicine, and maybe even the climate. While it is rather unlikely that there will be a quantum smartphone, the applications for quantum computing are numerous and will help us better understand our world as it changes, especially when it comes to working conditions in industry.
Quantum computing is actually not such a new idea, explains Professor Jens Eisert, physicist and specialist in complex quantum systems at Freie Universität Berlin. Visionaries such as the American physicist Richard Feynman had proposed initial rough ideas about this technology as early as the 1980s. “But it is only recently that actors have stepped up to actually build such things. Companies like IBM and Google, as well as governments, are spending vast sums of money to make them.”
Germany is at the forefront of this field: Quantum technologies now stand alongside AI, microelectronics, biotechnology, and climate-neutral energy and mobility on the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR)’s High-Tech Agenda. “It’s now a huge topic!” Eisert adds.
Physics professor Jens Eisert researches at the Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems.
Image Credit: Personal collection
How far along are quantum computers now? “They’re not quite there yet, but at the same time they are already unbelievably advanced,” says Eisert. Twenty years ago, it was barely possible to generate eight qubits (quantum bits), and quantum computers themselves only existed in science fiction. Qubits are the smallest memory units, and it is through their interactions (and entanglements) that complex calculation processes can be performed extremely quickly.
Today there are already models that boast 1,221 qubits. For nonspecialists, this may not sound like a lot, but, as Eisert explains, “They operate in a configuration space of 21221 dimensions!”
Hardware Acquired, Software Required
The path to large commercial quantum computers may still be long, but it is high time to develop the software suited to them. This is the role that Quantum Software Alliance plays. Its members include research institutions in Australia, Canada, the US, Japan, and Singapore.
In addition to Germany, many European partners are also on board in Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Switzerland. More will be joining soon, including some of Eisert’s former colleagues from Munich – such as Robert Wille – and Cologne.
“The leading teams in the world in this area have joined together, written a kind of manifesto, and developed a roadmap for what the next steps should be,” says Eisert. His role will be to develop the interface between complex mathematical reasoning and practical applications. For example, machine learning. “I use ChatGPT myself hundreds of times each day for every possible thing – almost like a colleague. Now I would like to find out to what extent quantum computing can perform such tasks better, and what we can realistically expect from them in the future.”
Germany Must Maintain Its Edge
Where will quantum computers be used? Eisert cannot help laughing. “Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, estimated the global market for classical computers to be about five systems. How wrong he turned out to be! My laptop and iPhone alone would be considered mainframe computers, as they were known at the time.” Eisert thinks that there will be demand for 1,000 or perhaps even far fewer quantum computers located in giant data centers somewhere in the world that can be accessed via the cloud.
Eisert emphasizes that, as an industrial nation, it is crucial for Germany to be at the cutting edge of this technology. “But we must pay attention to continuity and not simply draft fancy papers.” Germany is strong in research, but often stumbles in the implementation – in patents, commercialization, startups, and products. Germany is in the vanguard – for now. But competitors, particularly in East Asia, are tough and tireless. “At the moment there is fair competition. But this can change quickly once the technology is commercialized on a large scale,” warns Eisert. “Let’s not repeat the failures made with solar technology...”
The Future Is Quantum
In the future, large companies and research institutes will primarily use quantum computers to solve complex problems, for example, in quantum chemistry or climate research. If scientists can better understand chemical processes, then it will also be easier for them to synthesize molecules. Chemical ingredients for products can then be produced more cheaply with fewer resources. Eisert is convinced that “the whole world will ultimately benefit from this because we will understand it better. It will become healthier, faster, more diverse, more beautiful – and hopefully, more sustainable.”
The original German version of this article appeared in campus.leben, the online magazine published by Freie Universität Berlin.