The UK Government has announced a package of support aimed at bolstering the country’s quantum sector, with Scottish institutions among those set to receive a raft of new funding.
In a flurry of announcements, the Government said that it will look to make a £300,000 investment to relaunch the Scotland-California quantum and photonics partnership (SU2P), initially launched back in 2009 but since wound down.
With this cash injection, the Government said it will once again bring together quantum researchers from across the Universities of Strathclyde, St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow, together with colleagues from Stanford University and Caltech, to unlock new opportunities for investment in the hope of bringing quantum breakthroughs to market.
At the same time, the Government also set out plans for a new Quantum Centre for Nuclear Defence and Security at the MoD’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).
This will support AWE work with the University of Strathclyde to bring quantum computing and sensing to bear in nuclear science and technology, which the Government said is vital to the UK’s national security.
Central to the Government’s quantum plans, however, are plans to provide a £14 million boost for fourteen new quantum projects, provided through Innovate UK’s Quantum Sensing Mission Primer awards, in the hope of developing next-generation sensors that could be used in healthcare, transport, and defence.
Backed projects include a portable eye scanner that could replace costly hospital machines, cutting-edge cancer screening tools, and a new sensor that could help engineers detect buried infrastructure, without the need for costly excavation.
Meanwhile, a new MOU between the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has been signed, with the Government also marking the launch of the National Metrology Institute-Quantum (NMI-Q) at the National Physical Laboratory, earlier this week, a partnership for quantum R&D across the G7 plus Australia.
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The Government said that the announcements were key to its plan for unlocking the value of quantum, a core part of its Industrial Strategy, which saw £670 million pledged towards growing the UK’s burgeoning quantum industry in the hope of generating an additional £11 billion in UK GDP and over 100,000 jobs by 2045.
“The achievements of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme over the last 10 years have positioned the UK as one of the world’s leading quantum nations,” said Jonathan Legh-Smith, executive director of UKQuantum.
“Our companies have developed world-leading technologies across the whole quantum domain – including sensing, imaging, clocks and computing – with strong engagements across sectors such as transport, finance, telecommunications and defence.
“The announcements today demonstrate that the translation of innovation to commercial reality is already well underway in the UK.”
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