Quantum technology network launched

Consisting of four ’hubs’, the £120 million national network will put cutting-edge research in quantum sensors at the forefront of future technologies.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the technology hubs will be led by the universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Oxford and York, with the national network comprising a total of 17 universities and 132 companies.

“This investment in quantum technologies has the potential to bring game-changing advantages to future timing, sensing and navigation capabilities

Greg Clark MP

“This exciting new ’Quantum Hubs’ network will push the boundaries of knowledge and exploit new technologies, to the benefit of healthcare, communications and security,” said minister of state for universities, science and cities Greg Clark this morning.

“This investment in quantum technologies has the potential to bring game-changing advantages to future timing, sensing and navigation capabilities that could support multi-billion pound markets in the UK and globally,” Clark said.

It is expected that research across the four hubs will yield new generations of motion, gravity and electromagnetic field sensors and information processing devices that use the quantum mechanical properties of light and matter, rather than conventional electronics and optics.

Philip Nelson, EPSRC chief executive, said: “These new hubs will build on our previous investments in quantum science. They will draw together scientists, engineers and technologists from across the UK who will explore how we can exploit the intriguing properties of the quantum realm.

Scientists at Southampton University’s Optoelectronic Research Centre (ORC), for example, will work across two of four hubs, receiving £4.6 million to invest in new equipment and research funding.

Peter Smith, from the ORC, said: “We are thrilled to be part of this major new national initiative.

“We will be gaining new manufacturing equipment that will allow us to fabricate new optical devices with nanometre precision and will be developing the new chips needed for quantum technology.”

Smith, whose specific involvement in the project will include the development of optical waveguide devices as elements in quantum photonic networks, said the quantum technology programme will make extensive use of the cleanrooms and optics labs in the Mountbatten Building at the University of Southampton.

As part of the Quantum Technologies Programme, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) will establish a Quantum Metrology Institute at its site in Teddington, UK.

David Delpy, chairman of the Strategic Advisory Board for UK National Quantum Technology Programme, said: “NPL will have a critical role to play across the lifetime of this programme, both within the field of metrology and beyond.

“Many of the new techniques will require very specialist measurement tools, and NPL’s new Quantum Metrology Institute will provide crucial resources to help support the whole network.”