Translational Research Program

Impact beyong the lab: translating research into technology

The successes of the EQUS Translational Research Program (TRP) have established it as a gold standard for research translation in Australia, bridging the gap between fundamental discovery research and technology commercialisation.

There’s nothing unique about translating quantum tech. This approach will work in any scientific field.
- Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

The program’s innovative funding structure has been instrumental to its success, enabling researchers to undertake short projects to rapidly test hypotheses or build prototypes. This agile approach has enabled translational outcomes that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Among the success stories that came out of the translation program are:

• UQ: Analog Quantum Circuits optimising future quantum computing with ultra-compact superconducting circulators
• MQ: Redback Systems aiding cutting-edge quantum technologies with powerful spectroscopic instrumentation
• ANU: Vai Photonics securing navigation with new photonic sensing hardware
• USYD: Iceberg Quantum advancing tomorrow’s quantum computers with improved error correction
• UWA: Jovian Tech enabling the hydrogen economy with purity sensing solutions

The most lasting impacts of EQUS translation will be the 120+ future research leaders who built technical, commercialisation, communication and problem-solving skills, and discovered their inner entrepreneur.

In recognition of its success, EQUS’ TRP has been implemented in over a dozen other research centres and universities.

EQUS translation stories

Redback Systems echelle spectrometer

An EQUS team at Macquarie University saw the potential for others to use a high-resolution spectrometer design they had constructed for their own research needs on nitrogen–vacancy colour centres in diamonds.  EQUS’ Translational Research Program provided funds and support so they could redesign the system from a table full of optics into a small and rugged prototype device.  The translation project bridged the gap from lab to demonstration.  Since then, the team has founded a startup company, Redback Systems, to refine the technology and have started selling this unique instrument to customers all over the world.

Read more: https://equs.org/sites/default/files/equs_trl_redback_systems_echelle_sp...

Stratospheric and low-Earth-orbit coherent optical links

At the University of Western Australia, a multidisciplinary team including EQUS members invented a new system for point-to-point communications using light.  EQUS’ Translational Research Program funded building a demonstration device to show the world’s first phase-stabilised coherent optical transfer system working over a true point-to-point free-space link.  During international testing, the technology set a new global record for the most stable optical-frequency transfer, an order of magnitude better than state-of-the-art optical atomic clocks.  The team is now working to integrate this technology into a satellite ground station.

Read more: https://equs.org/sites/default/files/equs_trl_stratospheric_and_leo_cohe...

Supressed-noise oscillators

Low-noise oscillators are important to fields as diverse and important as radar, 5G telecommunications, precision gravity sensing, and quantum technologies. An EQUS team at the University of Western Australia used funding provided by the Translational Research Program to design and build a high-Q resonator for use in a low-noise oscillator. The proof-of-principle system that they built was used to demonstrate a sensitive gravity gradiometer.  The team is now engaged with multiple industry partners applying this technology to problems ranging from communications to mining and defence.

Read more: https://equs.org/sites/default/files/equs_trl_supressed_noise_oscillator...

Quantum error correction simulator

Quantum computers are developing at breakneck speeds, with tech giants, startups, and academic teams all working to make them practical and useful.  A major barrier to this development is the presence of errors and so quantum error correction is expected to be crucial in any future commercial quantum computer.  EQUS’ Translational Research Program has enabled a team at the University of Sydney to convert their cutting-edge simulations of quantum error correction codes and decoders into a software package called QECSIM.  The translation funds allowed QECSIM to become freely available to academic and industrial research communities, and packaged it for ease of use and extension.

Read more: https://equs.org/sites/default/files/equs_trl_quantum_error_correction_s...