08/18/2025
Applications open for quantum innovation program supporting start-up companies
Cleveland Clinic has launched the second annual Quantum Innovation Catalyzer Program. The competitive program provides an opportunity for early- and venture-stage companies to explore quantum computing applications in healthcare and life sciences.
The 12-month immersive experience includes dedicated access to IBM’s Quantum System One at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, the first quantum computer dedicated to healthcare and life sciences research. This year there is also a new opportunity to receive up to $250,000 from K5 Toyko Black Fund, with an in-kind match from Cleveland Clinic.
The program experience includes:
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Space on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus
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Opportunities to discuss research ideas and projects
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Educational offerings
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Advanced business networking
The program will select up to four companies through a competitive application process.
Applications are open August 18 through October 31. Teams will be selected in November 2025. The program will begin in January 2026.
News from the 2024 winners
The inaugural class of Cleveland Clinic’s Quantum Innovation Catalyzer Program included Ohio-based Qradle and Finland-based Algorithmiq. Both organizations collaborated with Cleveland Clinic on groundbreaking research with quantum technologies.
Algorithmiq led a project in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic and IBM Quantum to create a set of computational tools that aims to explore how quantum computing could assist in the development of photon-activated drugs for cancer. The project won the first phase of Wellcome Leap’s Quantum for Bio Challenge, a global challenge that focuses on accelerating the development of quantum computing applications for healthcare.
Qiang Guan, PhD, from Qradle Inc., collaborated with Feixiong Cheng, PhD, Cleveland Clinic on a recently submitted paper on their work using a quantum computer to predict protein folding structures. Their results have outperformed the accuracy of AlphaFold 3.