UK–Germany Collaboration Bringing Chemistry Software into the Quantum Computing Era
By Thomas Bromley, Markus Bursch and Aleksei Ivanov
Quantum chemistry has long been recognised as one of the most compelling early applications for quantum computing. The ability to accurately predict the chemical properties of complex molecules could transform industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to clean energy, yet existing classical methods need supercomputing-level resources to tackle large chemical systems of practical relevance. Overcoming these limits requires a new computational paradigm–one that the Quantum Integrated Chemistry (QUICHE) project, a newly funded UK–Germany partnership, is now working to unlock.
Backed by Innovate UK and Germany’s ZIM programme, QUICHE brings together three organisations with complementary expertise: the silicon-spin CMOS hardware and algorithm developers at Quantum Motion, the developers of the ORCA quantum chemistry software package at FACCTs, and quantum error correction specialists at Riverlane. Their shared mission is to build one of the first practical, end-to-end workflows that allows chemists to run quantum-ready calculations directly inside ORCA, a platform used globally across academia and industry.
At the heart of the project is the technical challenge of translating a chemical system into an algorithm that can run on a quantum computer. QUICHE will focus on electronic structure calculations for novel materials that can be used in solar cells and batteries, aiming to automate the process of efficiently mapping to a quantum circuit. State-of-the-art decomposition and compilation techniques will be used to break the high-level chemistry problem into sequences of hardware-compatible gates, stripping away unnecessary operations and minimising circuit depth. This optimisation step is essential. Without it, even small-scale examples would remain impractical for quantum hardware.
Another major aspect of this project will be the development of two backends–one targeted at pushing the boundaries of classical simulation using the QuEST ecosystem, supported by Quantum Motion. The second backend will enable resource calculations for large systems beyond the capabilities of classical compute, providing estimates of qubit counts and the runtimes required for practically relevant problems. Together, the decomposition pathway and quantum backends will be integrated with ORCA, allowing chemists to explore quantum computing without deep expertise and paving the way for an automated pipeline to execute impactful applications directly on quantum hardware.
Aleksei Ivanov, staff quantum scientist at Riverlane, underscores the ambition behind the project:
“Chemical simulation is one of the most promising application domains for quantum computing. Through QUICHE, we’re developing circuit optimisation techniques that will help early fault tolerant quantum hardware run chemistry calculations more efficiently and at higher accuracy.”
One of the most important aspects of this project is to ensure that all the technical work remains accessible to the chemists who will ultimately use it.
Markus Bursch, computational chemist at FACCTS, notes:
“Our goal is to give chemists seamless access to quantum computing through the tools they already know and trust in successful research environments. QUICHE will enable us to explore the connection between quantum mechanics and quantum computation at a practical level without overwhelming users with unnecessary complexity.”
ORCA’s frontend is being extended so users can run quantum-computing enabled pathways without having to learn new tools or programming languages. The consortium is building the mechanisms that automatically pass chemical information into the quantum pipeline and validate results against ORCA’s high-accuracy classical methods. By grounding the project in the workflows chemists already rely on, FACCTs makes quantum computing a natural extension of the tools used by tens of thousands of scientists worldwide.
The combination of these contributions will create something genuinely unique: a pathway that spans chemistry, algorithms, quantum circuits, and hardware realities – something that neither academic prototypes nor isolated cloud-based demos have previously achieved.
Expanded upon by Thomas Bromley, applications lead at Quantum Motion:
“QUICHE will enable us to bridge the gap between quantum hardware and real chemical problems the industry needs to solve. Integrating with ORCA, one of the most popular computational chemistry program packages, our approach will allow scientists to explore impactful applications without needing to carefully design the underlying quantum algorithm, a crucial step in the path towards practical quantum computing.”
Through this combined research initiative, the three organizations have formed a truly coordinated and highly practical approach to quantum-integrated chemistry. QUICHE will allow researchers to develop, test and refine quantum workflows today, building familiarity, accelerating research, and informing the future quantum hardware innovations. Moreover, by outputting detailed resource calculations, the QUICHE project will give industries a way to understand their specific chemistry problems and the right time for investments in future quantum hardware.
This project is not just preparing for the future of quantum computing; it is actively shaping it.
For more information, visit: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10150101
About the authors:
Thomas R. Bromley is the Applications Lead at Quantum Motion, working to identify quantum computing use cases and develop the underlying quantum algorithms. Tom has over a decade of experience in quantum computing and leads a team of researchers and software developers to build applications that complement Quantum Motion’s silicon spin quantum dot hardware.
Aleksei Ivanov is a Staff Quantum Scientist at Riverlane. His work involves optimization of quantum algorithms for materials science and quantum chemistry applications, contributing to the advancement of quantum error correction (QEC) technology. Ivanov has a strong background in computational sciences, chemistry, physics, and quantum computing, and he is actively involved in various projects and events related to quantum technology.
Markus Bursch is a computational chemist associated with FACCTs GmbH. He has a strong background in quantum chemistry and computational chemistry, contributing to various scientific publications and collaborations. Bursch is involved in developing software solutions to facilitate quantum chemistry for theoretical, computational, and experimental chemists.
