Welcome to AQuRA!
AQuRA, the Advanced Quantum Clock for Real World Applications, is a European consortium of five industry leaders, two national measurement institutes and three universities. The AQuRA clock will be the first industry led clock prototype aiming for instability and uncertainty at around a second over the age of the universe.
Such precise and accurate clocks are crucial for the precise navigation, communications and sensing challenges that underpin our modern society. 
The goal of AQuRA is to make the best clocks in the world robust and compact enough for real world applications. These "optical atomic clocks" are amazingly accurate. If such a clock would have been turned on during the Big Bang, almost fourteen billion years ago, the clock would still be ahead or behind by around a second today!
AQuRA aims to make existing optical clocks smaller and more robust. Currently, these clocks do not look like the clocks in your home – they are complicated machines that fill entire laboratories. AQuRA wants to make these clocks transportable, so that they can be used for measurements in the field and eventually even sent to space using satellites. This could for example make GPS systems much more accurate. AQuRA is one of the quantum technology related projects that together form the European Commission's Quantum Flagship initiative. On this website, you will find our latest news, an overview of the project's tasks, a more detailed description of the twelve partner institutes that make the project possible and open positions. as well as an overview of media appearances and materials. If you want to know more about AQuRA, don't hesitate to contact us! More about the AQuRA project... |
Recent news
21 April 2026: AQuRA represented at EFTF. This week, AQuRA hosted a booth at the industry exhitbition of EFTF in Noordwijk (the Netherlands), where the project and the technologies were showcased to the time and frequency community.
In addition, Pierre Eberschweiler (CNRS) presented the latest developments in a poster presentation. 
6 March 2026: Launch of the Photonics & Quantum Impact Cluster (PQI Cluster). We are excited to announce that AQuRA is now part of the Photonics & Quantum Impact Cluster (PQI Cluster). With this collaboration, we hope to intensify dissemination activities and contribute to strengthening of of Europe's leadership in these topics. Read more about the cluster here.
The PQI Cluster brings together 11 EU-funded projects focused on advancing photonics and quantum technologies, united by a strong spirit of cooperation and shared vision. By leveraging complementary capabilities across research, industry, and innovation ecosystems, the cluster maximizes the dissemination and cross-fertilization of results. Through coordinated action and structured knowledge exchange, it amplifies impact beyond individual projects. Together, we strengthen Europe’s technological leadership in next-generation photonics and quantum solutions. |
