On 16 September 2025 the Centre for Quantum and Society will organise the next Quantum & Society Research Colloquium with Anh Nguyen as our speaker, with the lecture.

Securing (the minds behind) the quantum dream? Emerging law and practice of knowledge security in quantum innovation

Quantum innovation faces major engineering hurdles in translating quantum science into quantum technologies that can scale up and commercialise. The key to unlocking quantum ambitions is the coming together of scientific expertise, engineering acumen and commercial savviness.

The pursuit of these ambitions entails intense competition over talent and the regulatory efforts to secure state and institutional actors’ knowledge base through the emerging law and practice of “knowledge security.” In light of the proposed Dutch Knowledge Security Screening Bill (tabled for early 2027) and the recent EU Quantum Strategy (July 2025), this talk explores on what “knowledge security” means for the pursuit of quantum innovation.

First, the talk outlines the proposed (institutional) obligations in the Dutch Knowledge Security Screening Bill and contextualises these provisions alongside related legal frameworks of immigration, export controls and espionage. Then, the talk teases out the policy tensions between knowledge security and quantum innovation imperatives of talent acquisition for the quantum workforce, international collaboration and technological scale-up. Finally, the talk reflects on how the varying “threat constructions” underlying current knowledge security law and practices reverberate upon individuals as well as the overall pursuit of innovation in quantum, more broadly critical and emerging, technologies.

The talk will be hosted (in person, with the possibility to attend remotely) by the T.M.C. Asser Institute and the Law and Governance of Quantum Technologies Research Group at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) and the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL) at the Amsterdam Law School of the University of Amsterdam.