Big ideas about qubits at Quantum Australia Conference 2025

Australia marked the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology with a gathering of the world’s quantum leaders in Brisbane for the 2025 Quantum Australia conference.

Now in its fourth year, Australia’s premier quantum event is an annual showcase of innovation, talent and connection. The Queensland node of the newly established Quantum Australia industry association hosted this year’s conference for the first time.

Held from 25–27 March, close to 700 local and international attendees came to hear the latest in quantum technologies, international government collaboration and policies, and discussions on the future applications of quantum.

Shining the light on Australian quantum

Australian trailblazers such as Diraq, Q-CTRL and Quantum Brilliance joined leading Australian universities and quantum leaders from 10 countries. Among the attendees were Bluefors, CSIRO, Google, IBM, Main Sequence Ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia, PsiQuantum, Silicon Quantum Computing and many more. Representatives from the governments of Finland, India, Korea, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the US were also present to share how they are building quantum ecosystems in their countries.

The conference opened with a keynote from the co-founders of PsiQuantum. They traced the company’s journey, from demonstrating the first photonic transistors in the early 2000s at the University of Queensland, to growing the business in the United States and through global partnerships. PsiQuantum is now building a facility in Brisbane to develop the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Austrade’s Trade and Investment Commissioner in New York, Rachel Howard, moderated a panel discussion on the growing role of business within the quantum ecosystem.

The panel included James Palles-Dimmock of Quantum Motion; Kristen Pudenz of Atom Computing – the creator of Microsoft’s latest quantum compute platform – and Andreas Sawadsky of Quantum Brilliance.

The panel reflected on their personal experiences as business executives in the field, and the success of Australia as part of the sector’s global commercialisation.

Spotlighting the best of Australian quantum

Beyond the conference, some of the quantum industry’s global leaders travelled around Australia to build their connections with Australian industry, and with Australia’s quantum innovators. This included the first international business delegation to be led by QED-C, the United States’ leading body for quantum collaboration across government and business.

Austrade and QED-C hosted a delegation of US-based quantum businesses including QuEra, Rigetti, IonQ, Atom Computing, Keysight, Maybell, Google and Nvidia. They travelled to Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

The delegation met with senior representatives of Australian industries starting to explore quantum technologies, including resources, finance, telecommunications, health and cyber security.

They engaged with senior government policy makers at state and federal levels, to discuss:

• the translation of research into commercial applications
• the development of quantum precincts linked to manufacturing, sensing and compute
• the links between quantum technologies and national security interests.

They also exchanged insights across key sites in Australia’s own quantum ecosystem. These included the ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, the Sydney Nano Institute, the National Computational Infrastructure at ANU, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility.

Austrade, the Department of Industry, the Department of Home Affairs, Quantum Australia, and the Queensland, New South Wales, ACT and Victorian Governments supported the international delegates at the conference.

What next for Australian quantum?

Professor Sven Rogge, Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of New South Wales, says that while Australia has an established, competitive advantage in quantum technologies, we cannot develop our ecosystem alone. This was a recurring theme at the conference.

The breadth and depth of global participation at the Quantum Australia shows that Australia has a seat at the table, as one of the world’s most valued collaborators in the development of industrial applications of quantum. This position builds on many decades of research, a supportive policy environment, and a talent pool that is hard to replicate.

However, uptake of quantum technologies by industry in Australia is only at its earliest stages. While some of our industries are already exploring its potential, others are yet to fully consider how quantum could transform or protect their operations.

The success of Australian leaders – from PsiQuantum to Quantum Brilliance and Nomad Atomics – has always involved international investment and collaboration. Australia’s quantum industry offers many opportunities for researchers, investors, businesses, industry and government.

With revenue forecast to reach A$2.2 billion by 2030 and A$6 billion by 2045, there’s never been a better time to help build Australia’s world-leading quantum industry.

Find out more about Australia’s quantum industry.