An initiative to better understand and frame the ethical, legal and societal implications of quantum technologies.
Quantum Computing
Quantum Communications
Quantum Sensors
Quantum Materials
Evidence-based research
Interdisciplinary dialogues
Public Policy
Global Network of Experts
Research
Framework Paper
Tina Dekker & Florian Martin-Bariteau, “Regulating Uncertain States: A Risk-Based Policy Agenda for Quantum Technologies”, (2022) 20:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Technology 179
Opinions
Tina Dekker & Florian Martin-Bariteau, “Canada Needs a Responsible Quantum Innovation Policy”, The Hill Times, 2 February 2022.
Tina Dekker & Florian Martin-Bariteau, “Canada Must Act Fact to Prepare for the Quantum Age”, iPolitics, 31 May 2021.
Tina Dekker & Florian Martin-Bariteau, “Canada’s Defense Strategy Falls Behind in the Quantum Age”, Lawfare, 2 April 2021.
Collaborative Projects
As part of QUORUM, a NSERC Quantum Alliance, we lead a research agenda on the governance of the Quantum Internet and protocols.
The Quantum Internet (QI) is a future network that connects quantum-enabled devices and runs alongside the conventional internet. Much like its conventional counterpart, innovations for the QI require progress both in hardware and software. QUORUM focuses on the software aspects of QI, while also aiming to bridge the gap between hardware and software. Due to unique quantum phenomena, the landscape for the QI is very different from that of the conventional internet. In particular, this is evident for aspects related to communications (e.g., distributed computing, channel coding) and cryptography (e.g., secure communications and computations). The development of the QI also offers a unique opportunity to incorporate governance, law and ethics considerations at the onset, in order to promote more equitable impacts.
The development and deployment of quantum technologies are sure to have significant impacts on society. Consider the prospect of unbreakable quantum cryptography, or of quantum communications that cannot be intercepted. These technologies may appear to be inherently rights-promoting, but history teaches us that all technologies have complex and differential impacts on the rights of differently situated individuals and groups. It is often those with power in society that benefit from innovation, while gender, sexual, racial, and other forms of minorities confront new kinds of harm made possible by new technologies. We need trans-disciplinary research to help society develop appropriate governance models and legal frameworks to manage the transformative impacts and potential risks of quantum technology. QUORUM is bringing experts from different disciplines together to build protections for human rights, equity, diversity, and inclusion into the design of new technologies.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Anne Broadbent (University of Ottawa)
We collaborate with the Sherbrooke Quantum Institute as part of a FRQNT-funded project aiming to foster close collaborations between the research community, entrepreneurs and society in an integrated approach based on a social dialogue including the actors concerned, at all stages (from ideation to integration in society) to help the social acceptance of the Sherbrooke Quantum Innovation Zone and therefore the success of the whole ecosystem.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Isabelle Lacroix (Université de Sherbrooke)
Leads
A creative and technologist turned legal scholar, Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau is the University Research Chair in Technology and Society, an Associate Professor of Law and Technology in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section and the Director of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa.
Tina Dekker is an intellectual property lawyer at BLG’s Ottawa office with a practice in patent law, and a senior research fellow with the University Research Chair in Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa's Centre for Law, Technology, and Society. Her background in quantum materials and nanotechnology engineering contributes to her exploration of the legal, ethical, and societal aspects of technology.
University Research Chair in Technology and Society
Nexus Institute for Quantum Technologies
University of Ottawa
Quantum & Society is a project of the University of Ottawa Research Chair in Technology and Society, hosted at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, the leading Canadian research hub for law, ethics and policy of technology, in collaboration with the NSERC Quantum Alliance QuORUM and the Nexus Institute for Quantum Technologies at the University of Ottawa.
Quantum & Society is supported by the University of Ottawa Research Chairs Program, and the Quantum Alliance Program of the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.