Prototype on way

Ms Simmons said her team is building a prototype quantum computer and intends to have this completed by 2020. However, competing researchers in the United Kingdom, where the government has injected ₤270 million ($590 million), and Holland where €135 million ($215 million) is being spent by government and industry, may get there first.

The UK government has identified "quantum technology as an area of cutting-edge scientific research that has the potential to deliver huge benefits for the British economy". Alphabet, formerly Google, has also invested in quantum computing and is working with the University of California, while other technology giants Microsoft and IBM also have teams working in this area.

Ms Simmons, who is director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence in Quantum Computation, said the US government had said her team were "two to three years ahead in silicon quantum computing" of their competitors. "I'm conscious we have something highly valuable."

Multinationals are interested

Her team's work has received substantial interest from the federal government and multinationals, among them aerospace and semiconductor companies, but so far the additional $100 million of investment required has not been forthcoming.

Quantum computing, Ms Simmons said, has the potential to create a new industry in Australia if the technology stays here. She said it would also benefit 40 per cent of Australian industry, from drug companies to transportation firms.

Australia has one of the developed world's lowest collaboration rates between industry and research institutions on commercialising innovative products or services. Last year, the federal government announced its Industry Growth Centres Initiative in attempt to change this.


Ms Simmons, who will give the keynote speech on her work at the annual Chief Executive Women's dinner on Wednesday night, said it would require more government investment to draw industry dollars to her team's work.

"That's what other governments are doing internationally. They have recognised if they're going to capture that benefit of this for their own countries [they need to invest] heavily now and that's attracting the industries to those countries." Intel has joined the Dutch government in investing in quantum computing research.

New and emerging sectors

Catherine Livingstone, Business Council of Australia president, last year argued that the government had a role in fostering new and emerging sectors to help build the country's competitive advantage and jobs. The urgency to do so has become greater as the mining industry and parts of the manufacturing sector continue to perform poorly.

The practical uses of quantum computing range from NASA crunching the enormous amount of data drawn from its telescope to find new planets and potentially identify other life forms, to helping companies provide hyper-personalised advertising by processing more information on a person based on their activity patterns on the internet.

Then there is the potential use for driverless cars such as those being developed by Alphabet. Information coming from the cars' cameras might be images of people, hills or safety bollards, which could be processed by a super computer to help perfect such vehicle's precision and accuracy.