If you are pursuing a career in quantum technology, there are few places on Earth better suited to your ambitions than the Basque Country.
This is the result of a concerted effort by the Basque government and academia to grow a strong quantum ecosystem, invest in quantum computing, and support researchers interested in the field. Already, this effort is paying dividends. Basque researchers are producing exciting results in high-energy physics, time crystals, and quantum algorithm development, and advancing the field of quantum computing.
The Basque Country, located in the northern region of Spain, numbers only 2.2 million people, but it has long had a robust physics community. The Basque government set up Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science, in 2007 to support and grow this and the broader scientific community.
Javier Aizpurua, professor at Ikerbasque and now Scientific Director of the Basque Quantum Initiative (BasQ), said that when the government first reached out to him to explore bringing quantum computing to the Basque country, he was strongly supportive.
After a survey of the regional scientific community, “We came to the conclusion that this could be a really key enabling technology, that could help us keep producing excellent science, technology, and innovation,” said Aizpurua. “And in the process we would gain access to one of the most advanced quantum computers in the world… So the Basque government made a strong, institutional bet on quantum computing.”
That bet first took the form of BasQ in 2023. The Department of Science, Universities, and Innovation of the Basque Government and the three Provincial Councils of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa lead this initiative, which supports a broad range of quantum research, and provides dedicated access to IBM quantum computers through the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center.
IBM had made the first quantum computer available to the public just a few years earlier in 2016. IBM broke the 100-qubit barrier for the first time in 2022, and demonstrated utility for the first time in 2023. BasQ put the Basque country in a position to take early advantage of that progress, and in October 2025 unveilied the first IBM Quantum System Two in Europe.
Now that BasQ has an on-premises IBM Quantum System Two, it will benefit from special access to the most advanced quantum computing technology in the world. On October 14, BasQ and IBM inaugurated this installation, powered by a 156-qubit IBM Quantum Heron processor.
Even before that IBM Quantum System Two was unveiled, BasQ-affiliated scientists have been using IBM quantum computers to deliver impressive results. BasQ researchers learn from IBM experts to develop their quantum skills. But the ecosystem there has grown to the point where BasQ researchers increasingly teach and learn from each other, making the Basque Country a hub of homegrown quantum computing expertise.
On 14 October, 2025, Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, Minister of Science, Universities and Innovation of the Basque Government; Horacio Morell, General Manager, IBM Spain; Eider Mendoza, Head of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa; Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research, IBM Fellow; Imanol Pradales, Lehendakari of the Basque Country; Bajartxo Tejería, President of the Basque Parliament; Ramiro González, General Deputy of Araba / Álava; Elixabete Etxanobe, President of Bizkaia; and Eneko Goia, Mayor of Donostia / San Sebastián, in front of Europe’s first IBM Quantum System Two, located at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center in San Sebastián, Spain. Credit: Ikerbasque
Credit: Irekia
The first IBM Quantum System Two in Europe, located at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center in San Sebastián, Spain. Credit: IBM
A new way of modeling subatomic behavior
For one ongoing project, researchers are using IBM quantum computers to help understand the mathematical underpinnings of the strong nuclear force—the same force that holds the nuclei of atoms together.
Basque Quantum + IBM (Part 1)
Strong force interactions are difficult to model or directly study. We mostly understand this force as the “glue” holding together subunits of protons and neutrons, called quarks. The strong force interacts in complex ways according to the rules of quantum chromodynamics. However, even simplified models of this force quickly reach scales that are too complex for classical supercomputers to handle. Today, the best method for studying strong force interactions remains particle colliders—vast, expensive experimental machines that ram protons together over and over, with the aim of collecting data on the particles, energies, and trajectories produced in high-energy collisions.
“The big question is, can we mimic the physics that happens in these colliders in a table top experiment?” said Enrique Rico, a physicist affiliated with both CERN and BasQ who has been a leader in this work. “Because although these quantum machines are big, compared to 20-kilometer colliders they are tabletop experiments.”
Basque Quantum + IBM (Part 2)
The joint BasQ-IBM research team, with members also from Ikerbasque, DIPC, EHU QC, CERN, IFT UAM–CSIC, Wigner RCP, and TUM, has made progress in simulating aspects of the strong force on a quantum computer. In as-yet unpublished work, they modeled simplified quarks moving back and forth, bending, oscillating, and spreading across the lattice of an IBM Quantum Heron chip.
Long-term access to real quantum hardware through the BasQ-IBM partnership made this work possible.
BasQ researchers spend significant time using IBM quantum computers and collaborating with IBM researchers and other academic partners of the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center to develop their quantum skills.
Jesús Cobos Jiménez, a PhD student at the University of the Basque Country who has played a key role in this quark modeling effort, said that the collaboration with IBM experts prepared him and his colleagues to do effective work on real quantum hardware.
“I think there’s a tendency when people first try quantum computing to say, ‘OK, I’ll do everything using classical simulators. I don’t need to touch the quantum hardware until I go for my final results.’” said Joana Fraxanet Morales, an IBM Quantum Algorithm Enigneer who works closely with BasQ researchers. “But I think it’s important to realize that there’s a big gap between simulating things on your laptop and then actually starting to use the quantum hardware. We do a good job at IBM with the learning platform, teaching people techniques. But there’s a part you only get with practice.”
Real quantum hardware is necessary for real work on quantum computers
In the case of these simulations, Jiménez said, the BasQ team went through a period of trial and error as they worked to test the capabilities of the quantum hardware.
“We weren’t sure how far we could go, modeling this on a quantum computer,” Cobos said. “We went slowly, step-by-step improving the results.”
Over time, the model reached a state-of-the-art level of sophistication.
Even though these quark interaction models are simulations, Rico said, they can teach us real things about the universe.
“For me the best analogy is wind tunnels,” Rico said. “When a company builds a new aircraft, the first thing they do is build prototypes and play with it in a wind tunnel to see how it really behaves. This is what we are doing with quantum computers. There are things we don’t understand about quantum physics, about materials science, about quantum chemistry. So now we can cook up these models in quantum simulators to see how they behave in real quantum conditions.”
Like a model aircraft in a wind tunnel, simplified models in quantum simulations can teach researchers about how full-scale systems behave. This can point future research in the right direction.
The next question, Rico said, is whether they can demonstrate a provable advantage for quantum computers over classical computers in the field of high-energy physics more broadly. Quantum advantage means that a quantum computer can run a computation more accurately, cheaply, or efficiently than a classical computer alone. IBM predicts that the first quantum advantages will be uncovered before the end of 2026.
Time crystals
BasQ researchers are also using IBM quantum computers and collaborating with IBM researchers to push the boundaries of condensed matter physics—which studies the properties of many interacting atoms.
Nicolás Lorente is a researcher at the Center for Materials Physics in Donostia who studies quantum phenomena. Before he began working with quantum computers, he focused on direct observations of atomic behavior.
“We found when you put a chain of these atoms, iron or titanium for example, close together and align them, you can drive microwaves through them so they start flipping,” he said.
That flipping behavior reveals some unusual patterns. Properly arranged, a chain of these atoms will develop a structure researchers call a “time crystal.” Just as atoms in quartz form an ordered crystal that resists deformation, spins in a time crystal oscillate in a stable, periodic pattern that resists attempts to perturb it.
Most physical processes observable in the universe eventually reach thermal equilibrium, ending in a state of maximum entropy. Stars burn out. A puff of gas expands to fill an entire room. Motion ceases due to internal friction. Time crystals are one of the few known counterexamples of perpetual, non-equilibrium motion, said Oles Shtanko, an IBM Quantum Research Scientist who has collaborated with Lorente and other BasQ researchers.
But time crystals emerge only in high-coherent quantum systems and are sensitive to noise; The chaos of the external universe can make them fall apart. IBM quantum computers, with super-cooled processors isolated from the heat and noise of the world, offer unique opportunities to study these dynamics.
BasQ offered Lorente’s team the access and opportunity needed to do so.
Until recently, time crystals had only been studied in one dimension: a chain of atoms each one linked to the next. These are relatively simple structures, as far as time crystals go. Signals transmit linearly down the chain, and a single block in the middle of the chain disrupts the whole crystal.
Now, in a pre-print available on the arxiv, BasQ and IBM researchers have demonstrated two-dimensional time crystals. This research compliments recent work from the Japanese scientific institute RIKEN also conducted on IBM quantum computers. IBM quantum computers have for the first time made it possible to demonstrate two-dimensional time crystals.
Shtanko said some of the results of this work are challenging to replicate with certain classical methods, like tensor networks. While it’s possible that a creative classical method can simulate these experiments, Shtanko said he is hopeful that quantum advantage is a close next step for this research.
Time crystals are among several exciting candidates for advantage as 2026 approaches.
A rising generation of Basque quantum experts
As quantum computers advance, Lorente said he’s hoping to use them to study spin liquids, which involve complex fluctuations and long-range interactions that are even more difficult to model than time crystals. He’s also hopeful that IBM Quantum Nighthawk will offer new opportunities for modeling condensed matter physics due to its increased connectivity. BasQ’s commitment to quantum computing means that more of this effort will take place in the Basque Country, on Basque-located quantum resources.
Cobos said quantum computing is a tool for advancing science, and that his work on the quark simulations has not only built his quantum skills but also made him a better collaborator—learning to get researchers across a wide range of domains working together effectively as a team.
Fraxanet Morales said she has seen rapid skill development among students and researchers in the Basque Country thanks to BasQ. She pointed in particular to the BasQ Advocates, individuals who have taken it upon themselves to support the growth and adoption of quantum technology in the Basque Country.
“People here are becoming experts,” she said. “Not only are they doing the work on many of the things that are being published, but they’re teaching their community. They are organizing workshops. They are getting other people to start using these computers. It’s quite nice.”
Those workshops, Cobos said, offer a “relaxed environment” for collaborating, learning, and developing quantum skills.
Consistency is key to growing an ecosystem like this, Aizpurua said. The Basque government’s consistent, committed support has enabled the Basque quantum ecosystem to grow.
Now, he said, there is a rising generation of BasQ-trained researchers and PhD students with quantum skills, ready to drive Basque quantum research for decades into the future.