Hoping to stay at the forefront of the nascent quantum computing field, IBM Corp. said today that it’s welcoming seven startups into its IBM Q Network community.

The IBM Q Network is a community of companies and other organizations that are dedicated to advancing quantum computing through the exploration of practical applications for business and science.

Launched in December, the network is essentially a vehicle for IBM to provide participating organizations with access to cloud-based quantum computing expertise and resources. This includes access to the IBM Q System, which is one of the earliest working quantum computing systems available outside of research labs. Other resources for members include access to application programming interfaces that are necessary to build quantum computing-based apps, as well as apps, software libraries and consultations with IBM’s experts.

The IBM Q Network also gives academic researchers and data scientists access to quantum computing resources via the IBM Q Experience, which is an experimental, cloud-based quantum computing platform. The network provides further resources through its QISKit, which is a collection of software along with documentation and demonstrations that illustrate how to create and run applications on quantum hardware.

IBM said it was welcoming the startups into its community in order to broaden their access to its quantum computing resources. They’re an interesting collection of organizations pursuing a variety of use cases for quantum computing that could have massive implications on business and science, IBM Research Director Jeff Welser said in a blog post.

The startups include Zapata Computing Inc., a company that’s looking to use quantum software to create algorithms for use in chemistry, encryption and decryption and error correction, among other applications. 1QB Information Technologies Inc. is developing hardware-agnostic platforms that will enable the development of new software that can scale alongside advances in quantum computing.

Another interesting member of the group is U.K.-based Cambridge Quantum Computing Ltd. Founded in 2014, this startup is attempting to combine artificial intelligence systems with quantum technologies for uses in chemistry, encryption and security. Other startups to join the IBM Q Network include Strangeworks Inc., QC Ware Corp., Q-CTRL PTY Ltd. and Quantum Benchmark Inc.

“We believe that extending our sphere of collaborators to include the startup community will help to rapidly foster growth at all levels of the quantum stack and advance early applications,” Welser said.

Image: IBM Research/Flcikr