How can we protect sensitive data as quantum computers continue to grow in power? Starting from this key question, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are joining forces in BENELUX-QCI. This new European project builds on earlier national initiatives, including BeQCI, and represents an important next step towards quantum-secure communication in Europe. Belnet once again plays there a central role.
From experimentation to infrastructure
Over the past few years, Europe has seen extensive experimentation with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a technology that enables the exchange of encryption keys based on the laws of quantum physics. Its major advantage? Any attempt to intercept the communication is immediately detected.
The motivation is clear: as quantum computers evolve, the risk increases that today’s encryption methods could be broken. QKD is widely seen as one of the technologies that can help address this challenge.
In Belgium, QKD has already been extensively tested within the BeQCI project. In collaboration with several consortium partners, Belnet deployed a QKD infrastructure and explored how different technological approaches can be used to enable secure communication between senders and receivers.
“BeQCI was a pilot project,” explains Niels Deriemaecker, Innovation Lead at Belnet. “We learned a great deal—not only about the technology itself, but also about potential use cases. We are now taking that expertise into the next phase: the BENELUX-QCI project. While BeQCI mainly focused on testing and experimentation, BENELUX-QCI places a much stronger emphasis on implementation.”
What is BENELUX-QCI?
BENELUX-QCI aims to build a cross-border quantum communication infrastructure linking Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. At its core is a fiber-optic backbone connecting key locations in the three countries, enabling the secure exchange of QKD traffic across national borders.
The project is partially funded by the European Union and aligns with the broader EuroQCI initiative, which seeks to deploy a pan-European quantum communication infrastructure to protect governments, research institutions and critical sectors against future cyber threats.
Collaboration between NRENs
A defining feature of BENELUX-QCI is the close collaboration between the three national research and education networks (NRENs): Belnet (Belgium), SURF (Netherlands) and Restena (Luxembourg).
“Each of us brings many years of experience in building and operating dedicated network infrastructures for research and education,” says Niels. In addition to the NRENs, several research institutions and public partners are involved. In Belgium, these include KU Leuven (COSIC) and imec.
Belnet’s role in BENELUX-QCI is both technical and strategic. On the technical side, Belnet contributes to the implementation of the infrastructure and to key components such as the Key Management System, which ensures secure interoperability between the different national QKD networks.
Strategically, Belnet also reflects on concrete use cases and on how quantum-secure communication can deliver long-term value to its end users. “Our mission does not stop at building the network,” Niels emphasises. “Together with our community, we want to explore where QKD truly adds value and how this technology can be deployed in a realistic and sustainable way.”
A step towards a European quantum internet
BENELUX-QCI is part of a broader evolution. Following national pilot projects such as BeQCI and these first cross-border backbones, further expansions are expected in the coming years. These include connections to other European QCI networks and, in the longer term, the integration of satellite links.
This development is often seen as a stepping stone towards a future quantum internet, where not only communication systems, but also quantum computers, sensors and simulation platforms are interconnected.
Would you like to learn more about BENELUX-QCI, or is your organisation interested in testing this new technology as part of the project?