On 2-3 May 2022 ARIES – Accelerator Research and Innovation for European Science and Society held its last annual conference in CERN summarizing 6 year long effort on the smart development of particle accelerator infrastructures in Europe. The whole series of Integrating Activities on accelerator infrastructures started in 2003 with preparations of CARE, then followed by EuCARD, TIARA, EuCARD2 and culminating with ARIES.

Europe has to face strong competitive challenges in the field of QIT from other regions of the world. The tools for the effective implementation of the challenges related to the start, we hope, of building a quantum civilization are both common and individual in particular European countries. Joint projects in the field of QIT, usually narrowly focused, are announced by large European Agencies and are related to their activities. Large-scale collaborative projects are of course the domain of the EC. National projects depend heavily on the capabilities of individual countries and vary greatly in size. The most technologically advanced European countries invest hundreds of millions of Euros in national QIT projects annually. The largest European FET class project currently being implemented is the Quantum Flagship. Although the EQF is basically just one of the elements of a large and complicated European scene of development of quantum technologies, it becomes the most important element and, in a sense, a dominant one, also supported from the political level. There are complex connections and feedbacks between the elements of this quantum scene. National projects try to link to the EQF. Here we are interested in such connections and their impact on the effectiveness of QIT development in Europe, and especially in Poland.

QIT–Quantum Information Technologies promises are very serious, greatly exceeding only technical and market levels. Development of QIT in Europe, treated as building a new infrastructural civilization level, requires a broader view of coordination, funding and priority-setting policy. Simple measures used in the case of the development of new technologies, but not creating a significant ecosystem, are insufficient in this case. Quantum technologies are poised to create a new information layer of knowledge-based society. In this essay, the author subjectively addresses some of the issues such as: what we already know and what we don't know, and what efforts are being made in Europe. Polish version of this paper was published in Przegl.Telekom.2.23.

CERN hosted on May 2-6, 2022, the first annual meeting of the H2020 I.FAST project to support innovation in the field of science and technology of particle accelerators. The project has a completely different character from its predecessors in this area of research. It was approved for implementation a year ago by the EC with the highest marks. It is worth looking at why projects such as ARIES, I.FAST and EURO-LABS are so easily accepted. This alleged ease of acceptance is an appearance. Behind the acceptance, in conditions of extremely tough competition, is the excellent organization of the submitting community that has been developed over the years, as well as the perfect, well-thought-out preparation of the material. The author, a participant in the ARIES and other EC projects in the field of particle accelerator science and technology, presents here, on specific examples, his subjective opinions on how to prepare materials for high-output projects for the EC FP. The author hopes that these remarks may be useful in the process of submitting research projects from Poland in international cooperation to the EC in the best possible way. The science and technology of particle accelerators is an excellent area of showing such examples because it is interdisciplinary and includes the following components: building of research infrastructure, applied physics, mechatronics, materials engineering, automation and robotics, electronics, ICT, innovation, cooperation with industry, and social.

The article is a sort of advanced publication workshop prepared by a group of M.Sc. students in ICT participating in the course on QIT. The idea behind the publishing exercise is to try to link, if possible, individual own work just under realization for the thesis with new unique possibilities offered by the QIT. Each chapter is written by a single author defining concisely her/his research interest in the classical ICT field and trying to find possible correlations with respective abruptly developing branches of the QIT. The chapter texts are somehow moderated by the tutor but are exclusively authored by young researchers. The aim was to present their views on the possible development directions of particular subfields of QIT, if not fully mature, but still based on their own ideas, research and dreams.

This article discusses four fields of study with the potential to revolutionize our understanding and interaction with biological systems: quantum biophotonics, molecular and supramolecular bioelectronics, quantum-based approaches in gaming, and nano-biophotonics. Quantum biophotonics uses photonics, biochemistry, biophysics, and quantum information technologies to study biological systems at the sub-nanoscale level. Molecular and supramolecular bioelectronics aim to develop biosensors for medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and food safety by designing materials and devices that interface with biological systems at the molecular level. Quantum-based approaches in gaming improve modeling of complex systems, while nanomedicine enhances disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention using nanoscale devices and sensors developed with quantum biophotonics. Lastly, nano-biophotonics studies cellular structures and functions with unprecedented resolution.

This article reviews chosen topics related to the development of Information Quantum Technologies in the major areas of measurements, communications, and computing. These fields start to build their ecosystems which in the future will probably coalesce into a homogeneous quantum information layer consisting of such interconnected components as quantum internet, full size quantum computers with efficient error corrections and ultrasensitive quantum metrology nodes stationary and mobile. Today, however, the skepticism expressing many doubts about the realizability of this optimistic view fights with a cheap optimism pouring out of some popular press releases. Where is the truth? Financing of the IQT by key players in research, development and markets substantially strengthens the optimistic side. Keeping the bright side with some reservations, we concentrate on showing the FAST pace of IQT developments in such areas as biological sciences, quantum evolutionary computations, quantum internet and some of its components.