£75m funding announced for UK quantum technology projects
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announces £45m of funding and National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) investing £30m in quantum computing prototypes
Science minister George Freeman yesterday announced at London Tech Week new funding to support universities and businesses working to advance the UKs standing in quantum technology.
The new investments will be delivered through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Technology Missions Fund, will build upon the National Quantum Technologies Programme, now in its tenth year. The fund is providing £8 million for 12 projects exploring quantum technologies for position, navigation and timing (PNT), £6 million for 11 projects working on software enabled quantum computation and £6 million for 19 projects' feasibility studies in quantum computing applications. £25 million is supporting seven projects for quantum-enabled PNT via the Small Business Research Initiative (SBSR.)
Will Drury, Executive Director, Digital and Technologies at Innovate UK said:
"Our exceptional researchers, businesses and innovators are continuously pushing the boundaries of Quantum Technology development, placing the UK at the leading edge of this field.
"Together, through this support and investment, we will work in partnership to realise the potential of this technology for our UK economy and society."
The 11 software-enabled quantum computation projects will be delivered in partnership with the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and will aim to advance algorithm capability to improve the performance of quantum computers.
The NQCC is investing an additional £30 million to commission the development of quantum computing testbeds (prototype quantum computers) in the UK. This initiative aims to deliver testbeds for characterisation, benchmarking, verification and exploratory application development.
The competition is being delivered in partnership with Innovate UK and is currently open for expressions of interest but closes on 26th June 2023. The full competition is due to launch in September.
The funding of quantum projects isn't likely to be universally welcomed. Quantum is a field which has lost media focus to AI of late, but last autumn, Oxford physicist Dr Nikita Gourianov in an interview with The Financial Times, accused quantum computing researchers of overstating both the scope, practical applications and progress being made in quantum technology for precisely this purpose - to attract funding.
Some in the industry hit back against Gourianov's claims, arguing that whilst quantum computing is still attracting a certain degree of hype, that the path to greater scalability and affordability was visible.
Earlier this year, researchers at Google claimed to have taken a major step towards using quantum computers for real-world applications, discovering a method to reduce the error rates inherent in present-day quantum devices.