The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has become a launchpad to accelerate quantum research and drive educational opportunities in quantum computing within the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) after cementing a new partnership with NYSE-listed IBM.

Wits is the first African academic partner in the IBM Q Network and will be the gateway for academic collaboration across South Africa and extending to the other 15 universities that are part of the ARUA.

“This is the latest outcome of the joint partnership between IBM Research and Wits, which started in 2016, when IBM opened its second lab in Africa at Wits’ Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, in Johannesburg,” says Wits research and postgraduate affairs deputy vice chancellor Professor Zeblon Vilakazi.

The collaboration deal, forming part of IBM’s Q Network, was officially signed in April and announced in June.

The IBM Q Network is a global community of Fortune 500 companies, startups, academic institutions and research labs working with IBM to advance quantum computing and explore practical applications for business and science.

The inclusion of Wits is expected to drive innovation in frontier technologies and benefit Africa-based researchers, academics and students, who will now have access to decades of quantum computing capabilities.

“Quantum computing should be able to help solve certain problems, such as chemical simulations and types of optimisation, that will forever be beyond the practical reach of classical machines,” says Vilakazi.

“For Africa to remain competitive in the coming decades, we must get the next generation of students quantum ready,” adds IBM Research Africa emerging market solutions VP and director Dr Solomon Assefa.

The partnership will allow researchers at Wits to investigate the use of quantum computing and machine learning in the fields of molecular biology, with a specific focus on HIV drug discovery and cosmology.

The teams will also jointly study quantum teleportation with IBM.

Scholars from the other 15 ARUA universities will have the opportunity to apply for access to IBM Q’s most advanced quantum computing systems and software for teaching quantum information science and exploring early applications.

The ARUA was inaugurated in Dakar in March 2015, bringing together the 16 universities.

These included the universities of Ghana, Nairobi, Lagos, Ibadan, Rwanda, Cheikh Anta Diop, Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria, Dar es Salaam and Stellenbosch, as well as Addis Ababa, Obafemi Awolowo, Rhodes and Makerere.

ARUA scholars will be required to submit high-quality research proposals to a scientific committee of Wits and IBM experts for approval to gain access to the IBM Q quantum cloud service.

“Having access to IBM Q is pivotal for Wits’ cross-disciplinary research programme and allows our researchers in quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and in the broad natural sciences, including laser technology, quantum optics and molecular design, to leverage the next level of discovery research.”

“It is envisioned that the first results from this collaboration will be forthcoming in the next two years.”

According to IBM, the Q Network was formed as an engine for discovery and to collectively forge “the path to quantum advantage”.