Insider Brief
- An Italian administrative court has suspended Campania’s €61 million euro contract to install a quantum computing system at the University of Salerno, delaying the region’s planned “quantum valley.”
- The court accepted an appeal from Tea Tek challenging the procurement process, including deadline extensions granted during the bidding, rather than the technical merits of IBM’s proposal.
- The ruling adds to a history of canceled and reissued high-value regional tenders in Campania due to procedural errors, leaving the project’s timeline uncertain.
- Photo by jorono on Pixabay
An Italian court has halted a €61 million — or about $72 million U.S. — contract to install a quantum computing system at the University of Salerno, stalling the Campania region’s plan to build a “quantum valley” in southern Italy.
The Regional Administrative Court of Naples accepted an appeal challenging the award of the contract to IBM, according to reporting by La Città. The project called for the purchase, delivery, installation and specialized support of a quantum system to be housed in the former Ruggiero library on the Fisciano campus.
The initiative was championed by the Campania regional government under former Gov. Vincenzo De Luca, which had promoted the site as a future hub for advanced computing research and economic development. Regional officials framed the effort as a step toward placing the area as a leader of quantum technology, a field that uses the physics of subatomic particles to perform certain calculations more efficiently than conventional computers.
Procurement Dispute
The appeal was filed by Tea Tek, one of the companies that lost the tender. According to La Città, the challenge focused not on the technical merits of IBM’s proposal but on the procedures used in the bidding process.
Tea Tek objected to deadline extensions granted by the region, arguing that the additional time effectively favored economic operators that had hesitated to submit a proposal. The court agreed to suspend the award while it reviews the case, leaving the project in limbo.
The ruling marks the latest setback for high-value regional tenders in Campania. La Città reported that previous multimillion-euro projects under the De Luca administration were canceled and reopened because of procedural errors. One of the most prominent examples involved an earlier call for bids related to construction of the new Ruggi hospital in Salerno, which was scrapped after criticism, including scrutiny from Italy’s national anti-corruption authority.
The suspension raises questions about the timeline for the quantum initiative and whether the region will need to relaunch the tender, or file an appeal.
