UK announces £45m boost for quantum technology research

A £45m package to support universities and businesses working in the UK’s quantum technologies sector has been unveiled by the UK science minister George Freeman. The investments, which were made through UK Research and Innovation’s Technology Missions Fund, will build on the country’s National Quantum Technologies Programme that has been running for nearly a decade.

The £45m funding will include £8m for 12 projects exploring quantum technologies for position, navigation and timing (PNT) and £6m for 11 projects working on software enabled quantum computation. There will also be £6m for 19 feasibility studies in quantum computing applications and £25m for seven projects quantum-enabled PNT via the Small Business Research Initiative.

One PNT project will develop a new sensor technology that can be used underwater or underground. Led by Joseph Cotter from Imperial College London, it will explore how quantum sensors can complement global navigation systems, which have limited capability when not above ground. The team will work with Transport for London (TfL) to test the new technology on London’s tube system.

The software-enabled quantum computation projects, meanwhile, will aim to improve the performance of quantum computers. Aleks Kissinger from the University of Oxford, for example, will develop quantum compilers that translate code written by humans into something the machine can run.

Projects into quantum computing applications will investigate the use computing and machine learning to reduce carbon emissions in aviation, develop improved methods to detect and reduce money laundering as well create a quantum-computing based approach to enzyme targeted drug discovery.

“Researchers, businesses and innovators are continuously pushing the boundaries of quantum technology development, placing the UK at the leading edge of this field,” says Will Drury, executive director of digital technologies at Innovate UK. “Through this support and investment, we will work in partnership to realise the potential of this technology for our UK economy and society.”

Drury adds that the National Quantum Computing Centre is also investing £30m to commission quantum computing testbeds in the UK.