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£75m for UK quantum computer, sensor prototypes

£75m for UK quantum computer, sensor prototypes

Technology News |
By Nick Flaherty



UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced £45m of funding for quantum technology projects, while the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) is backing a number of quantum computer prototype testbeds in a £30m project.

The announcements are part of a series for UK Tech Week.

The UKRI Technology Missions Fund is providing £8m 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 (SBRI)

As part of a wider quantum computing mission, the NQCC is also investing £30 million to commission the development of prototype quantum computers in the UK.

The NQCC is partnering with Innovate UK to deliver the competition. This opportunity is currently open for expression of interest but closes on 26 June 2023.

One of 12 projects researching position, navigation and timing (PNT) is led by Dr Joseph Cotter from Imperial College London. It aims to harness quantum physics to develop a new type of sensor technology that can be used underwater or underground.

It will explore how quantum sensors can complement the use of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) which can be vulnerable to adverse weather conditions, jamming and has limited capability underwater and underground.

The Imperial team are developing new navigation sensor technology that will provide superior position accuracy in the networks beneath our feet and a more resilient and secure alternative to GNSS and will be tested on London’s tube trains. This group of projects has also been supported by £400,000 from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

There are 11 software-enabled quantum computation projects will advance algorithm capability to improve the performance of quantum computers working with NQCC. One project, led by Dr Aleks Kissinger at the University of Oxford, will develop a new generation of quantum compilers.

Feasibility studies in quantum computing

There are also 19 feasibility studies in quantum computing applications to demonstrate commercial benefits of quantum computing. These range from investigating the use of quantum computing and quantum machine learning to reduce carbon emissions in aviation and developing improved methods for detecting and reducing money laundering.

Supported through UKRI’s SBRI, seven projects will deliver quantum-enabled systems for positioning, navigation and timing.

The aim is to deliver quantum-enabled sensors for navigation applications, such as magnetic or gravity field sensors. Projects include UK sovereign supplies of deployable high accuracy atomic clocks to provide timing and navigation in the absence of satellite navigation signals and for industrial applications such as future 5G and 6G telecoms.

www.ukri.org; www.nqcc.ac.uk

 

 

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