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Canada’s Department of National Defence has launched the Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub, or Quantum DISH, in Calgary, Alberta, awarding a University of Calgary-led consortium $20.3 million over two years to accelerate quantum technologies into operational military capabilities.
The hub operates under the Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science (BOREALIS) and brings together government, industry, academia, and innovators in a secure environment for developing, testing and validating quantum technologies for the Canadian Armed Forces.
Among the hub’s priorities are capabilities directly relevant to positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), the development of GNSS-independent navigation technologies, spoofing detection systems, and quantum-secure communications and timing capabilities.
The Quantum DISH will focus on four integrated work packages — quantum sensing, quantum communications, quantum algorithms and quantum hardware assurance — targeting what the department described as emerging operational challenges in contested environments, including threats such as GPS spoofing.
“Quantum technologies are expected to transform defense and security through advances in sensing, secure communications, navigation, computing, and decision support,” the department stated in its Aug. 6 announcement.
The hub joins two existing BOREALIS facilities — a Maritime DISH pilot and an Uncrewed Systems DISH — as part of Canada’s broader Defence Innovation Secure Hub network. Quantum is identified as a sovereign capability priority under Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy.
Defence Minister David McGuinty said the hub is intended to translate Canadian quantum research into “mission-ready capabilities” while growing the country’s sovereign defense industrial base.
The University of Calgary was selected through a competitive call for proposals. University President Edward McCauley called the investment “transformational” and cited the institution’s existing strengths in quantum computing, sensing, and communications through its Quantum City initiative.
