ERC Starting Grant to Daniel Stilck França

The Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen is proud to announce that Associate Professor Daniel Stilck França has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for his project GIFNEQ – Gibbs Framework for Near-term Quantum Computing.

Originally announced during his time in Lyon, the grant has now been officially transferred to the University of Copenhagen, where the project will be carried out starting in July 2025.

Quantum computers promise revolutionary advances in fields ranging from materials science to machine learning. But current quantum devices are hampered and limited by noise - random disturbances or unwanted interactions with the environment that can easily derail calculations. With failure rates as high as one in every hundred or thousand operations, researchers need new theoretical tools to make use of today’s imperfect devices.

The GIFNEQ project, supported by €1.49 million in funding over five years, aims to develop mathematical methods for computing reliably in the presence of higher noise levels than previously possible.

Techniques for reducing the impact of noise

Rather than correcting every single error, which would be too costly, the project explores techniques for reducing the impact of noise.

Imagine we are shuffling a deck of cards before playing a game with our friends. If one of them cheats and places an ace before we shuffle them well, this cheating will not influence the final outcome. In contrast, if they cheated right after we shuffled, this would have a large impact. Seeing cheating as the role of noise in quantum computing, GIFNEQ will use similar effects to perform computations in a way that not all errors contribute in the same way. This novel approach will offer a way to carry out useful computations even when noise cannot be eliminated.

In addition, the project also aims to characterise dominant sources of noise, filtering out non-essential fluctuations and constructing more accurate models. These developments could pave the way for new applications of quantum computing in the near term, well before large-scale error correction becomes feasible.

A new research team

Now based at UCPH, Daniel will lead a research team including PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, working at the intersection of mathematics, quantum physics, and information theory.

“Thanks to the ERC, I have the ideal conditions to pursue this vision,” says Daniel. “It’s a tremendous recognition of the project’s potential - and of the research environment here in Copenhagen.”

For more information about the project, visit the CORDIS webpage.