On 4 October, the founding partners of the Naquidis Center met with Neil Abroug, Head of the French National Quantum Strategy, for the first time. Neil Abroug is an engineer at the French National Institutes of Science and Technology (INSA) and has a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Strasbourg. He also has a degree in innovation management from the Grenoble École de Management and in economic intelligence from the École de Guerre Économique in Paris. He has worked as a researcher and project manager at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in the field of Industry 4.0. In 2018, he joined the French Directorate General for Enterprise, where he helped to develop the national quantum strategy. He was also the rapporteur for the project assigned by the prime minister to MP Paula Forteza on France’s potential and ambitions for its quantum strategy.
The uniqueness of the Naquidis Center initiative caught Neil Abroug’s attention, and the strong commitment the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, the Institut d’Optique Graduate School (IOGS), the Universities of Bordeaux and Limoges, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the ALPHA-RLH competitiveness cluster have made to support the approach finally won over the General Secretariat for Investment (SGPI) representative. A new face-to-face visit to the Aquitaine Optical Institute (IOA) is now planned for late November. The regional players will be presenting all the ‘quantum’ initiatives. Contact us if we haven’t already done so.
