Tech giant IBM on Tuesday said it has partnered with 11 top-tier academic institutions including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and IIT Kharagpur to allow over-the-cloud access to its quantum systems in a bid to accelerate advanced training and research in quantum computing.

The faculty and students of these 11 institutions will be able to access IBM quantum systems, quantum learning resources, and quantum tools over IBM Cloud for education and research purposes that will allow them to work on actual quantum computers and programme them using the Qiskit open-source framework, a statement said.

The collaboration will be part of the IBM Quantum Educators programme that helps faculty in the quantum field connect with one another and provides them with resources to enable quality educational experiences, it added.

The partner institutions include Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) - Pune, IISER – Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Kolkata, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai and the University of Calcutta.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Madras are also part of the programme.

The programme offers multiple benefits like additional access to systems beyond IBM's open systems, pulse access on the additional systems, priority considerations when in the queue, and private collaboration channels with other educators in the programme, the statement said.

IISER- Thiruvananthapuram, ISI-Kolkata, and IIT-Madras will host Quantum Computing Lab courses for their advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. These courses will include lab sessions using IBM quantum systems.

Quantum Computing is a paradigm-shifting technology that can power countless innovations in the future, Gargi Dasgupta, Director of IBM Research India and CTO, IBM India/South Asia said.

"By providing access to our systems over the cloud, IBM is enabling India''s brightest minds to learn the skills to prepare for this disruptive future. IBM is committed to growing a quantum-ready workforce and building an ecosystem to nurture the quantum community in India," Dasgupta added.