The UK government has announced more than £14 million in new funding to accelerate the commercial use of quantum technology in healthcare, defence, transport and energy. She says this will help drive Britain’s next industrial revolution.
The investment, unveiled at the National Quantum Technologies Showcase in London on Friday, marks a major milestone in the country’s National Quantum Technologies Program – part of its broader plan to translate cutting-edge science into real-world applications that drive economic growth.
The funding will support 14 projects through Innovate UK’s Quantum Sensing Mission Primer Awards, which aim to transform research breakthroughs into market-ready solutions. Initiatives supported include the development of portable and affordable eye scanners for hospitals, quantum sensors to detect buried structures without excavation, and highly sensitive diagnostic tools to identify diseases earlier and more accurately.
Science Minister Lord Vallance said the investment would help cement Britain’s position as a world leader in the field. “Quantum technologies are changing the world – from highly sensitive sensors that help diagnose diseases to computers that can perform calculations in seconds that would take decades today,” he said. “The UK already has significant strengths and a vibrant community of companies leading this exciting new sector. Today’s funding and international partnerships will help support this growth across the country.”
Alongside the new domestic funding, the government announced several international partnerships to keep the UK at the forefront of global quantum innovation. These include a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, paving the way for collaborative research and talent exchange in quantum computing, as well as a £300,000 investment to revitalize the Scotland-California Quantum and Photonics Partnership (SU2P), linking leading Scottish universities with Stanford and Caltech.
Further collaboration will take place through the establishment of the Quantum Center for Nuclear Defense and Security at AWE in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, which will apply quantum computing and sensing to key national defense projects. The government also confirmed the successful deployment of seven operational quantum computing testbeds at the National Quantum Computing Centre, provided with £30m of funding from Innovate UK. These facilities will allow companies to test and validate new hardware, helping the UK technology ecosystem bring quantum breakthroughs to market more quickly.
The announcements also highlighted the UK’s growing role in international quantum research. Later this month, the SpeQtre quantum satellite will launch between the UK and Singapore to test highly secure encrypted communications in space. The UK is also working with Canada on a joint funding call worth almost £3.5 million to develop terrestrial and space-based quantum communications technologies.
Earlier this week, the government opened the National Metrology Institute – Quantum (NMI-Q) at the National Physical Laboratory, which will act as a global center for quantum research collaboration between the G7 countries and Australia. The United Kingdom will co-chair the initiative with the United States during the initiative’s first term.
Since the founding of the National Quantum Technologies Program 11 years ago, the UK has built one of the world’s strongest ecosystems for quantum research and commercialization. The government estimates that quantum technologies could contribute £11 billion to the UK economy by 2045 and create more than 100,000 jobs.
Jonathan Legh-Smith, chief executive of UKQuantum, said the recent investments showed how quickly the UK was moving from research to real-world applications. “The successes of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Program over the last decade have made us one of the world’s leading quantum nations,” he said. “The translation of the innovation into commercial reality is already well underway.”
The government has invested £121m in quantum research this financial year alone and committed £670m as part of its industrial strategy – one of the largest national investments in quantum technology in the world.
As the global quantum race heats up, the UK’s approach – combining research excellence, international collaboration and targeted industrial support – aims to ensure the country remains at the forefront of a technology expected to redefine medicine, communications and national security for decades to come.
