Illustrative: atoms and bonds of a lattice with a phonon travelling through it and one dopant site

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Technology and Digital Systems

Computing, Data and Quantum Technologies

Quantum technologies

Quantum technologies, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Quantum technologies: foundations and practice

This area covers quantum computing, sensing and communication, their realistic timelines and limits, and the transition risks they pose, above all the migration of public-key cryptography to post-quantum algorithms.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Sets regional deadlines that critical infrastructure operators and their suppliers will need to plan against. European Commission, A Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography, 23 June 2025

Learning outcomes

  1. Define qubit and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain quantum computing principles and quantum sensing with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against quantum communication and key distribution, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Quantum computing principles
    • Quantum computing principles
    • Quantum sensing
    • Quantum communication and key distribution
  2. Post-quantum cryptography
    • Post-quantum cryptography
    • Cryptographic inventory and migration
    • Quantum materials
  3. Quantum industry and workforce
    • Quantum industry and workforce
    • Responsible quantum innovation
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • Data is exposed to a future quantum computer when the years it must stay secret plus the years a migration takes exceed the years until a cryptographically relevant machine exists; the exposure is X plus Y minus Z, and the migration decision is about Y, the only term an organisation controls.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-T9 Quantum technology and cryptographic transition risk
  • NRS-H104 Hazard family: Quantum technology and cryptographic transition
  • NRS-M19 Method fabric: Cyber, AI and frontier technology

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. European Commission, A Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography, 23 June 2025
  2. Mosca, Cybersecurity in an Era with Quantum Computers: Will We Be Ready?, 2018
  3. Gidney, How to factor 2048 bit RSA integers with less than a million noisy qubits, 2025
  4. NIST, Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards (NIST IR 8547, initial public draft), 2024
02Live map

Connected activity in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Night-time lights and population density, the footprint of electrified, connected activity, over the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Connected activity

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Connected activity, framed on the United Kingdom and Ireland.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Optional layers (3 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

What is changing, with standards and evidence

Quantum technologies: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed quantum technologies between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Quantum technologies: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Sets regional deadlines that critical infrastructure operators and their suppliers will need to plan against. European Commission, A Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography, 23 June 2025

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in quantum technologies since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce EU member states adopt coordinated post-quantum transition roadmap on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. EU member states adopt coordinated post-quantum transition roadmap
    • EU member states, supported by the Commission, adopted a roadmap asking all to begin transitioning by end-2026 and to move high-risk use cases to post-quantum cryptography no later than end-2030.
    • Sets regional deadlines that critical infrastructure operators and their suppliers will need to plan against.
    • European Commission, 23 June 2025
  2. UK NCSC sets 2028, 2031 and 2035 migration milestones
    • The NCSC asks organisations to complete discovery and an initial migration plan by 2028, finish highest-priority migrations by 2031 and move all systems, services and products to post-quantum cryptography by 2035.
    • Gives a concrete timeline for cryptographic inventory, supplier engagement and budgeting in migration programmes.
    • National Cyber Security Centre (UK), 20 March 2025
  3. A backup post-quantum encryption algorithm is selected
    • NIST chose HQC, based on different mathematics from ML-KEM, as a fifth post-quantum algorithm and backup for general encryption, planning a draft standard in about a year and a final standard in 2027.
    • Supports crypto-agility planning by giving a fallback if weaknesses emerge in the primary key-establishment standard.
    • National Institute of Standards and Technology, 11 March 2025
  4. Quantum error correction is reported below the surface code threshold
    • Google Quantum AI reported that logical error rates on its Willow chip fell as encoded qubit arrays grew from 3x3 to 7x7, with real-time decoding, results published in Nature the same day.
    • Marks measurable progress toward fault-tolerant machines, a key input to timelines for cryptographic risk.
    • Google, 9 December 2024
  5. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-T9 Quantum technology and cryptographic transition risk
  • NRS-H104 Hazard family: Quantum technology and cryptographic transition
  • NRS-M19 Method fabric: Cyber, AI and frontier technology

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 5 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. European Commission, A Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography, 23 June 2025
  2. National Cyber Security Centre (UK), Timelines for migration to post-quantum cryptography, 20 March 2025
  3. National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST Selects HQC as Fifth Algorithm for Post-Quantum Encryption, 11 March 2025
  4. Google, Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip, 9 December 2024
  5. Mosca, Cybersecurity in an Era with Quantum Computers: Will We Be Ready?, 2018
  6. Gidney, How to factor 2048 bit RSA integers with less than a million noisy qubits, 2025
  7. NIST, Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards (NIST IR 8547, initial public draft), 2024
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Qubit

The basic unit of quantum information, which can be in a superposition of states.

Term

Quantum advantage

A task on which a quantum computer outperforms the best classical methods.

Term

Post-quantum cryptography

Public-key algorithms designed to resist attack by quantum computers.

Term

Harvest now, decrypt later

The threat that encrypted data captured today could be decrypted once quantum computers mature.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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