Dr. Ilias Papastamatiou, Senior Project Manager at GRNET and Coordinator of HellasQCI, was honoured to be invited by DTU (Technical University of Denmark) to present at the National QCI Workshop of Denmark: “Securing the Future: Quantum Key Distribution for Enterprises and Governments” and participate in the discussions towards building a secure quantum communication infrastructure in Europe and the deployment of EuroQCI.
During the workshop, Dr. Papastamatiou presented insights and updates regarding Greece’s advancements and steps towards the deployment of Quantum Communication Infrastructure and Networks in his presentation: “Progress & Lessons Learned from HellasQCI in Greece”.
These HellasQCI insights & updates include:
- The creation of an extended QKD Network in Athens, featuring 8 nodes and 5 physical links between GRNET, NKUA, NTUA and NCSRD with a total fiber length of 120 km,
- The integration of key technologies such as Switched QKD to optimise QKD device use and ensure network redundancy, the deployment of Optical Transport Layer Security (L1) in Athens between 3 nodes (GRNET, NKUA) to secure quantum communication layers and
- The integration of the Space QKD Emulator, used to assess the feasibility of the three Optical Ground Stations (OGSs) planned for HellasQCI.
HellasQCI participation at the Danish QCI Workshop fostered strong connections among National QCIs, facilitated engagement with both private and public sector stakeholders, and identified shared opportunities for collaboration and innovation—laying the groundwork for the upcoming EuroQCI phases, such as the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) call.
The workshop was an excellent opportunity for the Danish QCI – QCI.DK to present their expanding quantum-secure network, which will extend over 200 km from Copenhagen to Odense. They also highlighted their work on CV-QKD technologies and their integration into Denmark’s quantum communication infrastructure and demonstrated a QKD demo.
The QCI.DK project showcased Denmark’s collaborative approach, involving ministries, universities, and private companies such as the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Higher Education and Science, DTU, University of Copenhagen, SDU, Aalborg University, Danish e-Infrastructure Cooperation, Sparrow Quantum, and GlobalConnect.
Among the valuable takeaways of this event – for GRNET and the HellasQCI project – are (i) productive exchanges between our National Quantum Communication Infrastructures and the Danish QCI (QCI.DK) and (ii) insights into deploying Quantum Key Distribution for both enterprises and governments. Moreover, cross-border collaboration was promoted as the participants had the opportunity to share experiences on technology, deployment challenges, key lessons learned in building National Quantum Communication Infrastructures (QCIs) and explore the vision of building secure quantum networks across Europe and the deployment of EuroQCI.
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