With global investment accelerating and major economies positioning quantum as strategic infrastructure, the focus is shifting from scientific leadership toward industrial deployment — and where the resulting economic value will reside.
Australia represents about 0.3 per cent of the global population, yet is widely recognised as having one of the world’s leading quantum workforces and csiroresearch capabilities.
Against this backdrop, Australia’s quantum sector will gather in late April for a global conference aimed at accelerating the shift from laboratory leadership to industry deployment, amid growing focus on whether the country can convert research strength into sustained economic value.
The Quantum Australia Conference, themed Quantum for Impact: Unlocking Productivity, will be held on 29 and 30 April at the Adelaide Convention Centre. It will bring together researchers, policymakers, investors, quantum industry and industry end users to examine how quantum technologies can be embedded into the sectors that underpin national productivity.
The conference comes at a pivotal stage for the sector.
The domestic ecosystem includes 40-plus quantum pure businesses and 26 dedicated quantum research organisations, spanning computing, sensing, communications, and enabling software.
In fact, research by Oxford Economics indicates that quantum computing could boost UK productivity by up to 7 per cent by 2045, equivalent to around £212 billion in added economic value.
While these figures are specific to the UK, they point to the potentially very substantial economic upside of quantum adoption across major economies.
Yet the same report also warns that “government support for the sector will be crucial” to realise these returns, following other industry leaders who also argue that research output and workforce depth alone will not secure that return.
Rather than operating as a discrete vertical, quantum is increasingly framed as an enabling capability layer that cuts across multiple industries where optimisation and simulation, sensing and metrology (including timing and navigation), and secure communications determine performance.
Quantum sensing is one example and in many applications is closer to practical deployment than quantum computing, with field trials and early products already emerging.
In mining and energy, advanced gravimetric and magnetic sensing techniques are being explored with the aim of improving higher resolution subsurface imaging, ore body characterisation and reducing drilling risk in capital intensive projects.
In space and satellite systems, similar principles could improve navigation precision. In defence contexts, quantum inertial sensors are being developed to provide positioning capability independent of satellite systems.
Quantum optimisation and simulation present another opportunity.
Logistics and transport operators face routing and scheduling problems that grow exponentially more complex as constraints multiply.
Advanced manufacturing and energy companies are also exploring quantum simulation to accelerate discovery of new materials, such as improved battery chemistries, catalysts, and semiconductors, reducing reliance on trial-and-error lab cycles.
Healthcare and life sciences illustrate how these different quantum capabilities come together.
Organisations are exploring quantum and quantum-inspired approaches in areas such as optimisation, molecular modelling, and drug discovery. These are occurring alongside advances in quantum sensing and imaging that over time could support more precise diagnostics, in areas such as cancer and neurological disease subject to clinical validation and regulatory pathways.
In financial services, financial institutions are assessing quantum and quantum-inspired approaches to portfolio construction and risk simulation.
So the question, sector leaders say, is where the economic value generated by these applications will ultimately reside.
Preventing value leakage offshore
Quantum Australia chief executive Petra Andrén said that if Australia produces quantum talent and intellectual property but large-scale industry adoption occurs in other countries, the downstream economic benefits are likely to follow.
“If Australian researchers generate world class intellectual property but major corporates in the United States, Europe, or Asia become the first large scale adopters then a significant share of the downstream value is more likely to anchor in those markets, such as systems integration, services, standards influence and, where relevant, manufacturing and supply chains,” she said.
“In countries where governments act as intelligent early customers through procurement pathways and coordinated pilots, companies can scale faster because they have credible demand signals and reference deployments. Access to venture capital then determines how quickly that scales.
“This is why we’re seeing major jurisdictions increasingly pair research investment with mechanisms that pull technology into real users, pilots, mission-led programs, and public-sector procurement that creates early customers
“The United Kingdom’s Quantum Catalyst Fund is one example, alongside Germany’s federal action plan for quantum technologies and the European Union’s Quantum Technologies Flagship, all designed to move capability from research into real-world use.
“If we do not align research, capital and demand settings here, we risk training talent and generating intellectual property that ultimately creates industrial growth elsewhere rather than within Australia.”
From research strength to industrial strategy
Ms Andrén believes the solution is structured, coordinated industry deployment within Australia with clearly defined use cases tied to measurable productivity gains in sectors such as mining, energy, health, logistics, and finance.
“To realise these gains requires pilot programs with commercial milestones, integration into existing operational workflows, and capital allocated against realistic pathways to scale rather than speculative timelines,” Ms Andrén explained.
She noted that national coordination was essential to that model.
“Researchers need to develop technology against real world constraints. Industry needs to articulate operational problems early so solutions are demand driven. Procurement and regulatory settings need to provide clarity and consistency. And investors need funding structures that reflect longer deep technology timeframes.
“In that environment, quantum capability becomes embedded inside the industries that drive export earnings and productivity. It does not sit adjacent to the economy. It strengthens it.”
The conference program reflects that emphasis on alignment across the ecosystem.
Researchers and founders like Professor Michelle Simmons, CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing, are expected to address how development pathways can respond to commercial timelines and deployable use cases.
Investors will examine capital models suited to deep technology.
Industry representatives, such as HSBC’s Head of Quantum Philip Intallura, will discuss pilot programs and internal capability building aimed at positioning organisations ahead of global competitors.
For Quantum Australia, which was established to coordinate growth across the national ecosystem, the gathering signals a shift in the national conversation from scientific milestones to industrial strategy.
As Ms Andrén puts it, “With global investment accelerating and major economies positioning quantum as strategic infrastructure, the focus is moving from proof of concept toward eventual productivity impact.
“Whether Australia captures the full economic return from its early research leadership will depend on how effectively it translates that capability into coordinated industry deployment.”
To hear more, join us at the Quantum Australia Conference on 29 to 30 April at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
This article was produced by InnovationAus.com in partnership with Quantum Australia.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.