QSC Call for proposals 2025

Four research lines of the Quantum Software Consortium: 

I - Software for a Quantum Computer

II - Software for Quantum Networks

III - Cryptography in a Quantum World

IV - Quantum Software Demonstrators

 

The available budget is €300k. Each proposal can request at most €75k.

 

Eligibility/Requirements

Each proposal should be supported by a QSC senior researcher (researcher at one of the QSC partner institutes on a tenure track or more senior position). The applicant can be a QSC senior researcher themself, but could also be a postdoctoral researcher or PhD student nearing the end of their contract, as long as the proposal is supported by a QSC senior researcher and the project will be executed at one of the QSC partner institutes. Every QSC senior researcher can be connected to at most one application.

 

There are few restrictions what the budget is spent on, but the applicant must have a salaried position for the duration of the grant, possibly supported by the grant. The budget can, for instance, be used for postdoc salary, appointment of temporary staff, material costs, the costs involved in performing citizen science, and travel expenses for commuting to other locations to conduct experiments.

 

Proposal template

Each proposal should contain the following information:

1. Name and affiliation of the applicant, and expected start and end date of the project

2. In case the applicant at 1. is not a QSC senior researcher: name and affiliation of the supporting QSC senior researcher

3. Title of the project

4. Abstract of the project

5. Proposal:

   1. Background/state of the art

   2. Aim of the project

   3. Approach

   4. Risk assessment (if applicable)

6. One or more of the research lines of QSC that the project is applicable to. A motivation can be added if needed

7. Brief budget specification

8. List of references (outside of the maximum page limit)

 

Each proposal should be at most 1 A4 (except for the references), with a font size of at least 11.

In addition, each proposal should include a CV of the applicant (at most 4 A4).

 

Proposal selection and timeline

Please send applications as PDF file to doutzen at cwi dot nl by 30 June 2025 11pm CET, and include in the subject line: QSC call 2025. Proposals will be selected by the QSC science committee, based on the following criteria:

• fit to the QSC research lines. Proposals with limited fit will not be granted

• fit of the project with the applicant’s expertise

• scientific excellence and feasibility of the project

Preference will be given to proposals which include research performed at more than one of the three nodes and to proposals involving experiment-theory collaboration.

 

The selection committee could ask external reviewers for assessing proposals based on the criteria above. The selection committee aims to decide and communicate which proposals will be granted by September 30, 2025. The project should start on or before 1 September 2026 at the latest and end before 1 January 2028.

 

For questions, please reach out via Doutzen Abma.

 

About the Quantum Software Consortium

Quantum Software Consortium (QSC) is a project of University of Amsterdam (UvA), Leiden University (UL), Delft University of Technology (TUD), Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).

QSC (Gravitation-grant Quantum Software Consortium - 024.003.037) is funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science through the Dutch Research Council (NWO).