UK quantum industry wants clarity over funding plans

The UK was one of the first countries to adopt a national quantum strategy, launching a ten-year £1 billion National Quantum Technologies programme (NQPT) in 2014, and as that reaches the end, there are now calls for a renewed commitment.

“The UK set the global standard for investment in quantum computing when it kicked off its national programme back in 2014. But the market is heating up, and the race to deliver a market-catalysing quantum computer is on,” Chris Ballance, CEO of quantum computing firm Oxford Ionics, told Science|Business.

“We’re at a critical tipping point. While the US and EU ramp up their investments to catalyse the quantum computing market in their countries, the UK cannot be seen to slow down. Through the UK’s early pioneering efforts, we have generated tremendous R&D value, but the government will need to act quickly and continue its investment to win the commercialisation race,” Ballance said.

Currently the UK is second only to the US, with 11% of the world’s quantum companies and ranks third in the world for the impact of its quantum research, according to UK government figures. But with the NQTP coming to an end this year, and other parts of the world now making major investments, the industry in the UK wants certainty government support will continue.

In March 2023, the previous government published a National Quantum Strategy, promising to more than double current levels of investment with £2.5 billion over ten years starting in 2024. It later unveiled five long-term missions, including deploying quantum navigation systems on aircraft by 2030, and having UK-based quantum computers capable of running one trillion operations by 2035. However, the new Labour government has yet to commit to implementing the strategy.

“Quantum is a deep tech industry, and investors are looking for a long-term strategy,” said Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, founder and CEO of Cambridge University spinout Nu Quantum, and co-founder and director of industry group UKQuantum, speaking at a Westminster eForum conference in July.

“The priority should be a clear start for this next phase of investment,” she said. “A stopgap between programmes or any change to the original commitments could have devastating effects on our industry, and be a catastrophic signal for investors.”

Quantum technologies exploit the rules of quantum mechanics, and proponents claim they will transform a wide area of fields, from drug discovery, to climate modelling and cybersecurity. Currently, many of these use cases remain largely hypothetical, but the UK sector wants to capitalise on its head start and make sure it does not fall behind when the time comes to roll out quantum technologies.

In 2018, the EU launched the Quantum Technologies Flagship, a ten-year, €1 billion initiative to support research and bring results closer to industrial exploitation. Several European countries also have national strategies, including France, Germany and the Netherlands. Elsewhere, Canada, China, South Korea and Japan are among those investing heavily in the field.

A UK government spokesman said, “The government is committed to developing technologies, such as quantum, that directly improve people's lives. We will shortly set out our plans to harness the UK’s technological expertise to drive innovation and support economic growth across the country.”

It’s not all about investment. Skills are also a key challenge, and the UK sector would benefit from actions to help small companies attract talent from overseas, in the context of skyrocketing visa costs, Palacios-Berraquero said.

Early commercialisation

The NQTP set out to make quantum technology an integral part of the economy and the UK the preferred location for global quantum companies, investors, and talent.

As part of the programme, four hubs were established around universities in York, Birmingham, Glasgow and Oxford. Each focuses on a different aspect of quantum technology: quantum computing and simulation; quantum communications; sensors and timing; and enhanced imaging. The hubs bring together experts from universities, national laboratories, business development and industry.

The programme has supported more than 470 PhD students and 49 start-ups. Many of these are spin-outs from UK universities, including QLM from Bristol University, which builds quantum-enabled cameras to detect methane leaks.

“Unlike in so many critical technologies, the UK is leading in both the research and the early-stage commercialisation of quantum technologies,” said Palacios-Berraquero. “We are not carving out a niche, but laying the foundation for the UK to be a defining player in this global industry.”

This is largely down to the NQTP, which “has fostered a really collaborative community across industry and academia and a thriving eco-system”, she said.

Peter Knight, chair of the NQTP strategy advisory board, told the forum that leveraging private investment has been “a notable success of the programme”. Through the Research and Innovation Challenge fund, which focuses on commercialising quantum technologies, £175 million of public money has attracted £550 million from companies.

“I’m sure the new government will be equally interested to see how economic growth, prosperity, and high value jobs around the nation can be really accelerated through investment in this sort of emerging technology,” said Knight.

Despite the current uncertainty, there is progress towards implementing the strategy announced in March 2023. Last September, the government launched a £15 million Quantum Catalyst fund to accelerate the adoption of quantum applications by the public sector, with 30 projects chosen to take part in the first phase of the competition.

Shortly after July’s general election, new science minister Peter Kyle announced five new research hubs, delivering on the £100 million pledge in the National Quantum Strategy. However, the government also announced it was not going ahead with a £1.3 billion investment in deep tech, including £800 million for a new supercomputer at Edinburgh University, saying the previous government had not budgeted for this expenditure.

The hubs announced by Kyle are for biomedical sensing at University College London and Cambridge University; sensing, imaging and timing at Birmingham University; integrated quantum networks at Heriot-Watt University; quantum computing at Oxford University, and quantum enabled position, navigation and timing at Glasgow University.

International partnerships are also a key part of the strategy. Since last summer the UK has agreed to cooperate with Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark.