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Industry Collaboration Index

Sector Award · Frontier technologies · 2026

Quantum Technologies: the winner and finalists

10 finalist partnerships, chosen from 99 eligible university and company partnerships in the open record. The winner is listed first; the other finalists follow in alphabetical order of university. The winner in each category is the finalist with the highest partnership score (volume of joint work 40%, years active 30%, field-weighted citation impact 30%) in the frozen Edition 1 record. No panel, nomination or payment plays any part. Winners were announced with the index at 05:30 BST, Thursday 15 October 2026, after the corrections and opt-out window closed at 17:00 BST on Tuesday 13 October.

All award categoriesThe Quantum Technologies sector index
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Winner · partnership score 94.0, the highest in the category

California Institute of Technology×Google

United States · company based in United States · 28 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 6.55
JP
John P. PreskillAcademic co-author · California Institute of Technology · 6 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
RB
Ryan BabbushIndustry co-author · Google · 11 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Quantum advantage in learning from experiments” (2022, 543 citations)
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Aalto University×IQM

Finland · company based in Finland · 9 joint works in the sector · active 4 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 1.56
MM
Mikko MöttönenAcademic co-author · Aalto University · 8 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
KT
Kuan Yen TanIndustry co-author · IQM · 3 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Unimon qubit” (2022, 38 citations)
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Harvard University×QuEra Computing

United States · company based in United States · 15 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 7.64
ML
Mikhail D. LukinAcademic co-author · Harvard University · 15 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
JW
Jonathan WurtzIndustry co-author · QuEra Computing · 3 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Constant-overhead fault-tolerant quantum computation with reconfigurable atom arrays” (2024, 157 citations)
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Technical University of Munich×BMW Group

Germany · company based in Germany · 8 joint works in the sector · active 4 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 1.94
FP
Frank PollmannAcademic co-author · Technical University of Munich · 2 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
CR
Carlos A. RiofríoIndustry co-author · BMW Group · 5 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Efficient MPS representations and quantum circuits from the Fourier modes of classical image data” (2024, 13 citations)
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The University of Osaka×NTT

Japan · company based in Japan · 18 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 3.30
KF
Keisuke FujiiAcademic co-author · The University of Osaka · 5 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
YS
Yasunari SuzukiIndustry co-author · NTT · 7 joint works in the partnership
“Qulacs: a fast and versatile quantum circuit simulator for research purpose” (2021, 318 citations)
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Université Paris-Saclay×Quandela

France · company based in France · 10 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 2.92
IS
Isabelle SagnesAcademic co-author · Université Paris-Saclay · 8 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
NS
Niccolò SomaschiIndustry co-author · Quandela · 8 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“High-rate entanglement between a semiconductor spin and indistinguishable photons” (2023, 122 citations)
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University of Cambridge×Hitachi

United Kingdom · company based in Japan · 12 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 1.90
CB
C. H. W. BarnesAcademic co-author · University of Cambridge · 9 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
NM
Normann MertigIndustry co-author · Hitachi · 3 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Quantifying the effect of gate errors on variational quantum eigensolvers for quantum chemistry” (2024, 38 citations)
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University of Chicago×Microsoft

United States · company based in United States · 10 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 2.49
KS
Kaitlin N. SmithAcademic co-author · University of Chicago · 2 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
MS
Mathias SoekenIndustry co-author · Microsoft · 2 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Design and Automation for Quantum Computation and Quantum Technologies” (2022, 2 citations)
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University of Maryland, College Park×IonQ

United States · company based in United States · 20 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 3.63
AR
Andrew RisingerAcademic co-author · University of Maryland, College Park · 7 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
AM
Andrii MaksymovIndustry co-author · IonQ · 4 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Cross-platform comparison of arbitrary quantum states” (2022, 39 citations)
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University of Waterloo×IBM

Canada · company based in United States · 10 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 3.27
DG
David GossetAcademic co-author · University of Waterloo · 2 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
SB
Sergey BravyiIndustry co-author · IBM · 3 joint works in the partnership · ORCID
“Quantum Hamiltonian complexity in thermal equilibrium” (2022, 36 citations)

Partnership score: volume of joint work 40%, years active 30%, field-weighted citation impact 30% (shrunk toward 1.0 when evidence is thin). Joint works count half where the only company author also holds a post at the university. The named researchers co-wrote the cited paper and represent a wider team. Full rules.