Singapore’s National Quantum Office (NQO) and neutral-atom quantum computing company Pasqal have signed their first Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) under the Master Research Collaboration Agreement (MRCA) established at the France-Singapore Quantum Symposium (FSQS) 2025. The MRCA was the first research collaboration between Pasqal and Singapore’s quantum ecosystem via the NQO-led National-level Quantum Programmes (NQPs).
This first RCA announced today, carried out through the National Quantum Processor Initiative (NQPI), one of the NQPs, will focus on researching advancing error mitigation and quantum error correction (QEC) techniques for neutral atom quantum processors.
The 2025 MRCA set out a long-term framework for collaboration across complementary areas of quantum computing research, including improving the accuracy of quantum computation, advancing quantum algorithms, and developing next-generation quantum hardware.
The RCA
Building on this foundation, the first RCA puts the broader collaboration framework into action through an active joint research programme focused on advancing error mitigation and quantum error correction (QEC) techniques for neutral atom quantum processors. Error mitigation and QEC are essential research areas for improving the reliability of quantum processors and represent a key complement to ongoing advances in quantum hardware.
Specifically, the RCA will bring together the Pasqal R&D team and Associate Professor Ng Hui Khoon, from the Department of Physics and the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, for QEC, error mitigation, and benchmarking protocols for neutral atom computers. The RCA also establishes postdoctoral researcher exchanges between the two institutions, enabling researchers to jointly develop algorithms, validate them experimentally on Pasqal’s neutral-atom quantum computing platform, and accelerate scientific knowledge transfer and long-term capability building between Singapore and France.
By combining Singapore’s expertise in quantum algorithms and quantum error correction with Pasqal’s expertise in neutral-atom quantum computing, the collaboration aims to accelerate the development and experimental validation of techniques that improve processor reliability and scalability.
Neutral-atom quantum processors have demonstrated rapid progress in scaling to increasingly large numbers of physical qubits. As these systems continue to mature, improving their reliability through error mitigation and quantum error correction has become one of the next critical scientific milestones towards scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing. This joint research programme will explore new approaches tailored to neutral-atom architectures, helping to accelerate the development of fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) capabilities.
