Year of Quantum 2025: What does this global declaration mean for Finland?

The year of 2025 marks a significant step forward for quantum technology research and development both in Finland and beyond.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared 2025 the Year of Quantum.

Finnish quantum players are capitalizing on the momentum of this declaration by producing events, public education and outreach activities, and cutting-edge research output at a higher rate than ever before. See the full list of activities for 2025 at the bottom of this page.

“The Year of Quantum declaration comes at an exciting time in the Finnish quantum ecosystem. Research and educational institutions, industrial partners, and ministries of government continue to carve new paths of collaboration in quantum technology research and development, and the year of 2025 is no exception for this work,” says Aalto University President Ilkka Niemelä, who chairs the Leadership Committee of InstituteQ, Finland’s national quantum institute.

“We at InstituteQ – along with our member partners – have big plans for 2025. This year will witness the expansion of our organization to include more research institutions and industries under the InstituteQ umbrella. This not only enables InstituteQ to better coordinate quantum collaboration on a national scale, but it also kick-starts a new era of public engagement and education surrounding Finland’s quantum science and technology expertise,” says InstituteQ Director Jukka Pekola, a professor of physics at Aalto University.

The year of 2025 also marks the publication of Finland’s national quantum strategy, which is still under development. This strategy will see the expansion of collaboration between quantum research institutions and companies domestically, as well as between Nordic and other international partners.

In addition, Finnish quantum-tech startups continue to make both local and international headlines. For example, new quantum computing algorithm company QMill launched with €4 million in seed funding in 2024. And Arctic Instruments, a VTT spin-off, raised €2.35 million in funding to develop next-generation parametric amplifiers also near the end of last year. This type of new startup activity, combined with Finland’s already-robust quantum industrial network, serves to bolster Finland’s status in the global quantum arena.

“Finland’s success story in quantum technologies continues to unfold in 2025. We are on the verge of achieving the next major national milestone in the three-year journey to scale up Finland’s quantum computer. As we advance towards real-world quantum computer applications, this milestone underscores Finland’s strategic competitiveness in the rapidly evolving technology landscape. Furthermore, this year marks the beginning of the construction of Kvanttinova, a groundbreaking pilot environment that will provide companies with significant opportunities to make a quantum leap”, says VTT’s President and CEO Antti Vasara, who also chairs the Finnish Quantum Strategy working group.

And Finland has a firm seat at the global quantum decision-making table. European Commissioner Henna Virkkunen has been appointed as the new EU Technology Chief, and she has made a strong case for international cooperation towards Europe’s quantum technology leadership.

From the early days of Olli V. Lounasmaa’s Low Temperature Laboratory to now, Finland has garnered a high-profile reputation as a quantum science and technology powerhouse – both Finnish companies and research institutions regularly contribute to the second wave of quantum advancements globally.

“The Finnish quantum ecosystem is on a very solid basis from foundational research to innovation activities and applications of quantum technology. The year 2025 will be instrumental in strengthening the collaborations in quantum technology,” says Sasu Tarkoma, the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Helsinki.

Much of the work of Finland’s national quantum strategy and the Year of Quantum 2025 local activities will be carried out by InstituteQ. This quantum institute operates as Finland’s umbrella organization responsible for coordinating quantum collaboration in the domains of business innovation, workforce education, research, and ecosystem development. Its founding members are Aalto University, VTT, and the University of Helsinki. It also houses the Finnish Quantum Flagship, a Research Council of Finland project jointly funded by the council and participating institutions.

See below a preliminary list of quantum events and activities taking place in Finland in 2025:

Events:

Regularly occurring InstituteQ Colloquia
Year round

Did you know that InstituteQ invites world renowned scientists to give scientific talks? These free events occur throughout the year, and roughly 10 talks are planned for 2025. Former speakers include Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek, Oxford Professor J. C. Séamus Davis, and Google Quantum AI’s Alexandre Bourassa. Subscribe to the InstituteQ newsletter and mailing list to get updates on upcoming colloquia.

Towards Rationality in Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials
February 11-13, 2025

This iteration of the TRNM workshop will be held in Levi, Finland. The workshop will be focused on 2D materials and their heterostructures, touching on the following topics:

Designer materials: realization of new types of electronic, magnetic, and optical responses in 2D materials and exploring avenues of atomic scale control, including defects, molecular assembly, and atom manipulation.

Methods: new techniques for the characterization of 2D nanomaterials, including progress in both experiments and theory. This includes developments in machine learning methods for data analysis and simulation.

Physics Days 2025
March 26-28, 2025

Physics Days – Fysiikan päivät 2025 will be organized in the Linnanmaa Campus of the University of Oulu. The conference is organized by the University of Oulu, Nano and Molecular Systems Research Unit, NMR Research Unit, and Space Physics and Astronomy Research Unit. The theme of Physics Days 2025 is “Spinning Around.” The conference will cover a broad range of topics in various areas of physics.

Resonate – Quantum Day 2025
April 11, 2025

The University of Jyväskylä will hold this yearly event as a celebration of World Quantum Day. Come play quantum games, collect rewards by solving quantum puzzles, and hear about research on quantum information and computing conducted in the IT faculty. The event is open to all interested.

Lakeside Quantum Dialogue 2025
May 20-21, 2025

Lakeside Quantum Dialogue is an event hosted by the University of Jyväskylä, where new ideas related to quantum information are presented in a form of engaging talks and then discussed while walking by the lake. The surroundings of the Faculty of Information Technology provide a great environment for this immersive meeting. The event is organized by the QIC-team.

Low-Temperature Quantum Detectors 2025
August 3-6, 2025

Recent developments in low-temperature detectors incorporate genuine quantum features, promising to reach unprecedented levels of measurement precision. On a fundamental level, these highly sensitive detectors will give us a glimpse into the world of quantum/thermal fluctuations and the effect of measurement backaction, and will advance the utilization of quantum resources and feedback. They will create a pathway to scientific breakthroughs: novel phenomena in condensed-matter physics, enhanced spectroscopical characterization, observation of new particles, and understanding the interaction between gravity and quantum-mechanical objects. This event serves as a satellite event immediately before the LT30 conference in Bilbao, Spain.

The 34th Jyväskylä Summer School
August 4-15

Jyväskylä Summer School – one of the largest and oldest summer schools in Finland – is organized by the Faculty of Mathematics and Science and the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä. In 2025 the summer school joins in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science. The Summer School welcomes students from all around the world to learn from top-level scientists, expand their professional network and create new memories. The majority of the 34th Jyväskylä Summer School courses fall under the following two themes:

Quantum Science and Probability Theory

Advanced Approaches for Secure and Intelligent Technologies

Finnish Quantum Days 2025
September 3-4, 2025

The Finnish Quantum Days, supported by InstituteQ and the Finnish Quantum Flagship, is an annual event that was first organized as InstituteQ’s Symposium in 2023. This event invites together the Finnish quantum community, and the mission is to invigorate quantum collaboration and offer views on current and future developments in quantum science and engineering.

JQUEST
End of 2025 | final date and website TBA

JQUEST is the University of Jyväskylä’s Quantum Electronics, Superconductivity, Topology and information workshop. This event has previously invited together the quantum technologies community to collaborate and share new insights on current and future developments in quantum science and technologies.

Education:

QDOC kickoff
March 11-12, 2025

To celebrate the Quantum Doctoral education programme, Aalto University will host a two-day kickoff event to officially gather the community together. The event will include plenary talks, student presentations, and networking opportunities with industrial partners. QDOC represents €23 million in funding from the Research Council of Finland for 90 new quantum doctoral positions, announced in February 2024 by the Finnish Ministry of Education.

QuantEd cross-institutional study agreement

The QuantEd agreement gives students of selected degree programmes at Aalto University and the University of Helsinki the ability to sign-up for quantum-related courses organized by the other institution. At Aalto University, the agreement applies to students enrolled in four Master’s programmes and three doctoral programmes. At the University of Helsinki, it covers students across all Master’s and doctoral programmes within the Faculty of Science, as well as those in two Bachelor’s programmes.

QPlayLearn

QPlayLearn makes quantum concepts accessible for everyone through engaging and interactive videos, games, and courses. And there is much more planned for 2025: exciting handshakes, a quantum music club, and a meet-and-greet event. But that’s not all – QPlayLearn will also be launching its second QTindu course, “Quantum Computing – the soft way!”

Make sure to also check out QPlayLearn’s first QTIndu course, “Inspiration Quantum,” which introduces some basic concepts of quantum science and technologies to prepare you for your quantum computing journey. And it’s totally free!

Kello Viiden Kvanttitee

This Informal monthly meeting hosted by the University of Jyväskylä makes quantum physics accessible to the general public.

The ABCs of Quantum Computing

The ABCs of Quantum Computing is a publicly available three-part course offered by the University of Jyväskylä. Quantum computers are constantly in the media. But what kind of devices are they? How does a quantum computer differ from a traditional computer? How does one program a quantum computer? And what is quantum information? Welcome to learning the ABCs of Quantum Computing!

Research and Innovation:

FQF lighthouse projects funded

The Finnish Quantum Flagship opened its first call for lighthouse and exploratory projects as part of Program 4: Quantum Future (P4). This is the first of three planned calls during the course of the flagship (2024, 2026, 2028). Each call will result in the funding of 1-2 high-impact lighthouse projects and/or 1-2 smaller exploratory projects. Grant application announcements for this first round are planned to be released in March 2025.

VTT’s 50-qubit computer to be unveiled in 2025

VTT announced the launch of its 20-qubit computer in the Fall 2023. Work has been ongoing for the next iteration, a 50-qubit quantum computer, and it is expected to be unveiled in 2025. In the coming years, the development will continue as the Finnish government has announced a total budget of €70 million to scale up the quantum computer towards 300 qubits and quantum advantage.

Kvanttinova plans push forward

Kvanttinova is a joint initiative by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the City of Espoo, Aalto University and the industry members of the semiconductor industry group of Technology Industries of Finland. It will serve as a new RDI hub for microelectronics and quantum industry players in Espoo, and construction could begin as early as 2025.

Photo credits: Top and bottom-right photos by Mikko Raskinen/Aalto University; Bottom-left image from Aalto University Archives