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Inauguration of the Link betweenJRC and EuroQCI through the Italian Quantum BackboneJune 10th 2025 The economic and strategic value of quantum technologies has been recently recognized at European and Worldwide level through a series of actions  and initiatives, supported by considerable public and private investments. The United Nations has declared 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Through its Directorate E – Societal Resilience and Security, in its Ispra Site, the JRC conducts research and provides policy support in the fields of quantum communications, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) timing metrology, and complementary positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies. In the context of providing policy support to Galileo and EGNOS, to the European Quantum Communications Infrastructure (EuroQCI) and the European Union Secure Connectivity (IRIS2) Programmes, the JRC is establishing a cluster of laboratories and testing facilities to advance knowledge in the fields of precise timing and synchronization, quantum key distribution, and to explore the intersections between them.On June 10th 2025, JRC Ispra is inaugurating its connection to EuroQCI via its Italian Quantum Backbone, through a new fibre link distributing precise UTC time and quantum signals from National Metrology Institute (INRIM). This connection holds both a great institutional as well as scientific value: it represents the first official link between a European Commission site with EuroQCI and allows at the same time to explore and test innovative scientific concepts in precise time and quantum protocols. Moreover, the UTC signal will be distributed within the JRC campus, making it available to all the lab facilities requiring precise timing. Finally the connection to the Italian Quantum Backbone will enable new experimental activities on quantum communication between JRC and other EU stakeholders in the field. The connection has been possible thanks to the collaboration of JRC Dir R and the investment of EUR 600k financed by JRC’s institutional budget over the next 5 years, demonstrating the strategic value for JRC’ research.

In this work, we implemented a quantum key distribution link between Sicily (Italy) and Malta utilizing two different single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors. The performances of a standard commercial SPAD have been compared with the results achieved with an alternative prototype of fast-gated system in a package (SIP) SPAD; the SIP detector has shown to be able to accomplish a 14 times higher key rate compared with the commercial device over the channel showing 20 dB of losses.

In the world-wide unique fiber-optic infrastructure for space-division multiplexed transmission of the University of L’Aquila, recently connected to the Italian Quantum Backbone, high-dimensional QKD in field-deployed multi-core fibers has been demonstrated within project QUID. The results of this research effort involving QTI, CNR, and the University of L’Aquila among QUID partners, along with the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Florence, have been recently published in Nature Communications.  

The network connects the Italian Quantum Backbone (IQB) node at the CNR Pozzuoli with the Meditech Competence Center and the Leonardo Laboratories in Pomigliano – Aerotech Campus (NA). The initiative, supported and coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Made in Italy (MiMiT), also involved Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, CNR-INO, INRiM, as well as Leonardo, QTI SRL, TIM, Telsy, ThinkQuantum, Cisco and Exprivia.