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Short abstract:

Taiwanese quantum strategies shed light on a direction understudied: the embeddedness of quantum technologies in the global chips value chain (GCVC). This paper analyses TW policies with some observations on nearby countries, interrogating RRI by considering actors’ different positions in the GCVC.

Long abstract:

Technological advancement and innovative breakthroughs require both the epistemic and the material cultures. The study of Taiwanese quantum research strategies, in which the government mainly takes the lead, has identified a repetitive pattern understudied in the current European-centric literature on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). That is the embeddedness of quantum technologies in the global chips value chain (GCVC). GCVC implies the global distribution of labour that affords the chip's design (US), advanced equipment development (EU), chip fabrication, testing and packaging (Asia) and commercialisation (US and China). Quantum technologies at this stage, especially in the Western world, are generally regarded as applying quantum expertise to computer science and communication (design phase). However, without considering the GCVC, the RRI reflection and studies might neglect how and what different players can tackle and collaborate with from the upstream to the downstream of quantum technologies. This paper provides a policy analysis of Taiwanese quantum research strategies and some observations on nearby countries (i.e. China and South Korea), aiming to invite peers to co-create RRI and GSCs with considerations of actors' different positions in the GCVC.

Points of discussion are proposed as follows but are not limited:

1. How can hardware-based quantum research players contribute to 'quantum for good' and GSCs?

2. How might GCVC facilitate or forbid global discussions on RRI?

3. How can ELSA interrogate the geopolitical and politico-economic agendas on quantum competition and chip protection?

4. Besides user data, how do we consider the security issues related to industrial data?