Organisation

Over the years, QuTech has grown considerably, both in terms of personnel and of labs and equipment. In 2019, QuTech became an institute of its own, independent of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. In 2020, we changed our governance structure to three divisions, steered by a Division Management Team consisting of research and engineering leads. They are supported by professional staff, both technical (hardware and software) and administrative (communication, finance, legal and human resources). Together we push our mission-driven approach and the pursuit of excellence in science and applied technology.

Governance

QuTech is not a legal entity but a collaboration between TU Delft and TNO that is governed by the Partnership Agreement (Samenwerkingsovereenkomst) of TNO and TU Delft. QuTech’s research and engineering activities are organized along three divisions, each following a single and coherent research and development strategy towards QuTech’s mission. The divisions are: Quantum Computing, Quantum Internet and Qubit Research.

Our highest governing body is QuTech’s Board of Directors (BoD), responsible for research, business development and operations. The BoD manages QuTech in consultation with the division management teams. It reports directly to the TU Delft Executive Board, which consults with the TNO Executive Board where appropriate, for example on decisions with financial consequences. The Research Director and Operations Director are employed by TU Delft; the Business Development Director by TNO.

Organizational and operational themes in 2021

Zoom view

Organizational and operational themes in 2021

Foresight Process: 2025-2035: Looking at QuTech’s Future development

At the start of QuTech, its founding fathers at the Faculty of Applied Sciences were convinced that a physics team would not by themselves be able to stay at the forefront of the quantum field. Therefore, they sought to work across disciplines and bring in much needed expertise from the EEMCS faculty, as well as a complementary engineering mindset, which was brought in by TNO. This steered the research in Delft in new directions and positioned QuTech where it is today, with a strong brand and reputation. Many research institutes have been inspired by QuTech and have attempted to copy us. Today, the field has reached a new phase, and we need to rethink our role, our unique added value, and how we can have the strongest impact in the years that lie ahead of us. In the light of these questions, as well as with a view to the QuTech Partner Covenant that will be in effect until 2025, the Board of Directors started a Foresight Process to recalibrate QuTech's strategy for the period 2025-2035. In 2021 a scenario study was completed after having received input from many internal and external stakeholders and though leaders. We have presented the strategic options that followed to the Midterm Review Committee visiting QuTech in April 2022 to provide us with the necessary feedback. In 2022 this will lead to a strategic plan, including concrete goals and KPIs that will be presented to the Covenant Partners.

Demonstrator Boards

QuTech invests significantly in demonstrators, in order to showcase, share and test its research and engineering results with the general public. Demonstrator projects are run in the Computing and Internet divisions, supervised by a Division Demonstrator Board, comprising the members of the Division Management Team and the Director Business Development. In 2021, our Quantum Network Explorer demonstrator was launched, opening up the quantum internet to everyone.

Housing and building renovation

We are preparing for the construction of a new building on the South Campus of TU Delft, where we will move to in a few years’ time. In 2021, we defined our programme of requirements for the new building. For the coming five years, we need to ensure that our current accommodation is up to date, safe and expanded to meet the growing demands of our high-tech optical and cryogenic labs.

People and recruitment

For a growing institute like ours, the corona pandemic has been tough. Many of our students and staff have been working from home most of the time. The vibrant QuTech halls were empty for most of 2020 and 2021. We were able to keep our labs open with the great help of our technicians and engineers, and we were able to stay in touch thanks to online meetings and social events, as well as the internal weekly QuTech update. We do realize however that especially for new recruits it was challenging to get acquainted with our work and community. Luckily, in October we managed to have an in-person QuTech Uitje with group activities during the day and a performance of Q2, the QuTech band, at the evening party.

Staff participation
Throughout the year, the personnel committee, consisting of eight staff members employed by TU Delft and TNO, has represented the QuTech personnel on important issues such as housing, diversity and inclusion, corona measures, and the QuTech budget. They organized various large events on diversity, see next item, and provided critical insights to the foresight study, our thinking about QuTech’s future after the current Partnercovenant ends in 2025.

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are important themes for QuTech. We strive to offer a working environment where students and staff from different backgrounds and cultures feel at home and supported. In October 2021, after various internal discussion rounds, including two QuTech-wide meetings on diversity organized by the personnel committee, we adopted a Diversity and Inclusion Policy. The policy focuses on two main priorities: Firstly, we strive towards more gender diversity, specifically a percentage of at least 20% female PhD students and postdocs working at QuTech in 2024. To reach this target, we aim to hire at least one, but preferably two or more, female group leaders/principal investigators in 2022. The second priority is promoting an inclusive working environment, meaning that people at QuTech feel safe at all times, a support network is available, and social safety is actively discussed.

Opening up of research work

Most papers of QuTech PI’s are posted on arXiv.org, the open-access archive for articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, etc., before they are accepted by and published in open-access journals.

To support our researchers in handling and opening up data, QuTech has hired its own data steward in 2021, who was the driving force behind the new QuTech Research Data Policy . The policy is motivated by the belief that good data management is an essential research skill, leads to research that is more time- and cost-efficient as it prevents data and information loss and duplication of efforts, and is required to guarantee the quality, reproducibility and impact of research. This policy is inspired by the FAIR principles: research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) by archiving it with proper documentation.

Percentage Open Acces Publications

Percentage of open access papers by QuTech. The percentages of open access publications are calculated based on QuTech publications taken from the TU Delft Pure database on the 24^th of November 2021 and the DOI’s are matched with the Scopus database. The Scopus definition of open access is used where gold, hybrid gold, bronze and green open access classifications are considered to be open access.

66%

72%

86%

92%

88%

Charlotte van Hees

“Our new home is coming alive”

Charlotte van Hees is the Director of Operations at QuTech. In this role she is responsible for managing everything that supports our core tasks: from HR and communication to housing, lab infrastructure and admin support.

“Despite the Covid restrictions, 2021 has seen a lot of highlights for QuTech, as you can read in this report. None of these would have been possible without the support of our technicians, project administrators, management assistants and other support staff, who kept the labs open and our processes running at high speed and quality. We cannot thank them enough!

One of my personal highlights has been the work on our new QuTech building on Campus South. The current building does not offer sufficient space and facilities to support our research and engineering efforts towards the future. Last year, we drafted and agreed on a programme of requirements, based on projections of QuTech’s strategy and growth plans, and – very concretely - we got assigned a plot of land where the building will be realized. Not only is this an important step towards our new accommodation, it also signifies the trust of the university management in the future of QuTech.

We combined the required number crunching with the development of our new ten-year strategic plan, to determine what the organisation will look like in the years to come: a very important and exciting process! Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do before we can start building: we are currently selecting a design and engineering team. At the end of the year, we should have the first sketches of our new home, making it come alive for the first time. Then we can really start visualizing how we will work together in the future.

Since March, many of us have returned to the campus and we noticed how much nicer it is that we can see each other face-to-face again. In the past two years, we welcomed a lot of new colleagues who, I believe, have been able to find their way around, but meeting them here in the office and working on team building again is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”

By the numbers

In December 2021, the QuTech team comprised 318 individuals, adding up to a total of 259 FTE (remunerated and non-remunerated). This compares with 241 FTE in 2020. The team size is expected to increase further to about 266 FTE in 2022. The FTE pie-charts below illustrate the composition of the QuTech community.