Yasser Omar, President of the Portuguese Quantum Institute and representative of the Quantum Flagship, said: “This survey highlights the importance of World Quantum Day, which aims to spark curiosity and open up the world of quantum science to everyone. We need the public worldwide to understand how important quantum technology is for our future. People are already intrigued by the potential applications, from healthcare breakthroughs to contributing to tackling climate change. World Quantum Day invites everyone to join the conversation, discover what’s happening, and imagine the future together.”

While there is widespread awareness and support for quantum technology, only one-third (29%) of those surveyed had a good level of understanding about what quantum science and technology is, and 49% had heard of it but didn’t know what it is.

What Quantum Can Do for Us

Approximately one in four people think they understand how quantum technologies could be applied to real-world challenges. For example, 23% knew that quantum science could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 29% that it could enable the discovery of new drugs to fight disease and 29% that it could improve weather forecasting, meaning we could get better warnings for storms and other natural disasters.

Health and well-being are advancing with quantum photonics, which provides rapid, clean detection solutions in medical imaging and diagnosis, while quantum chemistry is supporting the development of new vaccines and drugs. In industry and infrastructure, quantum engineering is leading to more energy-efficient and affordable solar cells, as well as low-emission LED light sources. For climate action, quantum physics is enabling scientists to develop next-generation sensors for environmental monitoring, while quantum processors are being developed to improve the accuracy of long-term climate models.