Insider Brief
- QUDORA Technologies has been selected as one of 13 European companies under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s Quantum Grand Challenge to develop scalable quantum computing platforms.
- QUDORA’s NEQTAR project will develop a technical and financial roadmap for scaling its Near Field Quantum Control technology and integrating it with European HPC infrastructure.
- The Quantum Grand Challenge combines Horizon Europe funding with potential European Investment Bank financing to support European quantum startups through technical development and industrial scaling.
PRESS RELEASE — QUDORA Technologies, the German full-stack quantum computing company, today announced that it has been selected under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s (EuroHPC JU) Quantum Grand Challenge, an EU program designed to accelerate the development of market-ready, utility-scale quantum computing platforms. QUDORA is one of 13 companies chosen from across Europe, and receives the recognition alongside the EU’s STEP Seal — the European Commission’s quality label for high-performing project proposals.
QUDORA‘s selected project, NEQTAR (NEar-Field Quantum ConTrol High-Performance Computing ARchitecture), will develop the technical and financial roadmap for scaling QUDORA’s proprietary Near Field Quantum Control (NFQC®) technology and integrating it with European high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.
“Being selected as one of 13 European quantum companies is a testament to our entire team’s work and our progress toward building a globally competitive quantum computing company from Europe,” said Dr. Amado Bautista-Salvador, CEO and Co-Founder of QUDORA.
“It is a privilege to receive the EU’s recognition, and we are excited to use the NEQTAR roadmap to advance our Near Field Quantum Control technology toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers,” said Dr. Giorgio Zarantonello, CTO and Co-Founder of QUDORA.
The Quantum Grand Challenge in Detail
The Quantum Grand Challenge is a flagship EU scale-up program combining Horizon Europe grant funding with European Investment Bank (EIB) financing to support European quantum startups building integrated hardware-software platforms:
- Phase 1 (October 2025 – January 2026): An open competitive call for European quantum startups. Selected companies receive Horizon Europe funding — approximately €4 million in total across the program — to develop technical and financial roadmaps, supported by proofs of principle or preliminary prototypes.
- Phase 2 (January 2027): Successful Phase 1 participants apply to the EIB Venture Debt Platform. Following due diligence, selected companies become eligible for venture debt financing to accelerate industrial scaling and commercialization.
- Long-term objective: Build European quantum champions capable of delivering commercially deployable, utility-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers while strengthening Europe’s technological sovereignty and quantum supply chain.
The EuroHPC JU’s Governing Board approved the final list of selected proposals on 19 June 2026 (Decision No. 31/2026). Of 30 proposals submitted, 27 met the admissibility and eligibility requirements; an international panel of independent experts evaluated them, with 13 retained for funding on the main list and three placed on a reserve list. Selected hardware modalities span cat-state superconducting, silicon-spin CMOS, trapped-ion, photonic, and analog processors, which will be integrated into EuroHPC supercomputing centers across Europe.
