From classroom to quantum lab: How QURECA is shaping Europe’s next quantum workforce
The quantum race is no longer only about hardware or algorithms — it is fundamentally about people. Across research institutions, deep-tech start-ups, and government agencies, demand for quantum-skilled professionals is accelerating sharply. Yet the pipeline of trained talent remains thin, unevenly distributed, and poorly aligned with industry needs. The European Commission’s own Joint Research Centre projects the global quantum sector will surpass €155 billion by 2040, creating thousands of highly specialised roles that currently have no clear training pathway for most European professionals. The EU Quantum Europe Strategy (July 2025) identified quantum skills as one of five strategic priorities for European technological sovereignty — alongside research, infrastructure, commercialisation, and security — and explicitly called for a coordinated quantum skills academy to address the continent’s fragmented, insufficient talent base. This is precisely the gap the European Quantum Academy (EQA) was built to close. And it is precisely the gap that QURECA has spent years preparing to address.
What Is the European Quantum Academy?
Launched in May 2026 under the European Quantum Flagship, the European Quantum Academy is Europe’s most ambitious coordinated effort to build a quantum-ready workforce — spanning school classrooms to research cleanrooms, and undergraduate seminars to executive boardrooms.
The scale of the initiative is unprecedented:
- €19.8 million in Horizon Europe funding
- 70+ partner institutions and 100+ affiliated organisations
- Coverage across 20+ European countries
- Structured through six Regional Quantum Academies spanning Northern, Western, Southern, Eastern, and Iberian Europe
The EQA is not a single institution but a coordinating body — a backbone that harmonises education policy, training standards, mobility programmes, and industry engagement across the continent. Each regional hub tailors activities to its local context while maintaining a shared European standard, directly addressing one of the Academy’s founding concerns: that world-class quantum infrastructure and talent are currently concentrated in a small number of countries, leaving much of Europe underserved.
As Paraskevi Ganoti, Policy Officer at the European Commission, noted at the launch:
“Europe has the research excellence and the community to lead in quantum technologies globally. Translating that into a workforce with the depth and breadth the sector will need over the coming decade is the work the EQA is here to do.”
QURECA’s Role in the European Quantum Academy
Building a global quantum workforce has been QURECA’s mission since 2019 — and our role in the EQA is its natural next chapter. As the world’s only company exclusively focused on quantum education and workforce development, QURECA contributes across four areas:
- Workforce Intelligence — Data-driven analysis of talent gaps, in-demand roles, and quantum capacity across Europe, ensuring Academy programmes reflect real industry needs.
- Professional Upskilling — Structured microcredential courses and a professional diploma in Quantum Computing and Programming, aligned with the European Competence Framework and designed for working professionals.
- Industry Engagement — Bridging academia and industry by co-developing training modules, defining employer-aligned competency standards, and connecting graduates to quantum career pathways.
- Quantum Flagship Experience — Built on QURECA’s prior work in QTIndu alongside TU Delft, the University of Helsinki, ICFO, and Airbus, delivering industry-facing training for engineers, managers, and executives across sectors.
Why This Matters: Europe’s Quantum Sovereignty Depends on Its People
Europe produces more than 100,000 STEM graduates annually, but the quantum-specific pipeline — particularly in software, systems integration, and applied quantum engineering — remains critically thin. The risk is not only economic. Without sovereign quantum expertise, Europe’s investment in quantum infrastructure cannot be fully exploited or protected.
The EQA was built on the foundations of four predecessor Quantum Flagship projects — QTEdu, DigiQ, QTIndu, and QUCATS — which established the shared European Competence Framework for Quantum Technologies and a growing network of qualified educational resources. The Academy extends this foundation into a continent-wide, institutionally committed mechanism for building talent at scale.
The initiative also underpins the Choose Quantum Europe ambition — positioning Europe as the global destination of choice for quantum talent, investment, and innovation by 2030.
The launch of the European Quantum Academy marks a turning point for Europe’s quantum future. For the first time, the continent has a coordinated, funded, and structurally committed mechanism to build a quantum workforce at scale — from the classroom to the laboratory, from the university to the boardroom.
QURECA is proud to be part of this historic effort. Our role in the EQA — spanning workforce intelligence, professional upskilling, microcredential design, and industry engagement — reflects the full scope of what quantum education needs to become: rigorous, inclusive, industry-relevant, and pan-European in ambition.
The quantum workforce isn’t coming — it’s being built right now. Make sure you’re part of it.