Descartes prize awarded to a European project involving Thales Research & Technology

The Descartes prize, recognising the best European research project of the year, was awarded to the IST* project "Qucomm" during a ceremony held on December 2 in Prague. "Qucomm", short for "Long Distance Photonic Quantum Communication", involved several major European research laboratories, including Thales Research & Technology (TRT), and aimed to develop new concepts of communication based on quantum mechanics.
One of eight partners on the project, TRT was in charge of the study of semiconductor components to realize diode laser sources, producing twin photons for quantum cryptography. This technique relies on the fundamental principles of physics to transfer data across telecom networks with absolute security. Such a security level is required, for instance, for highly sensitive industrial or governmental communications.
The award ceremony was held in the presence of the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, and the European Commissioner for Science & Research, Janez Potocnik. The Qucomm consortium was awarded 300,000 euros, to be shared among its partners. The prize was attributed jointly to a project in the medical field.
Research into semiconductor sources, initiated by TRT, is continuing through collaboration between Thales and Paris VII University. The prize confirms the relevance of that interaction, which has now resulted in PhD theses and common projects.
The Descartes Prize for Research was established in 2000 as the major European prize for collaborative research. Teams must involve at least two mutually independent legal entities established in two different states.
* IST = Information Society Technology
About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10.6 billion euros in 2003.
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