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The UK Science Minister Chris Skidmore has announced £94m funding for four quantum technologies research hubs in the country, aimed at helping researchers in finding new commercial opportunities for quantum technologies.
According to the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the four quantum technologies research hubs based at Birmingham, Oxford, Glasgow, and York are set to bring in transformation in sensing and timing, computing, imaging, and communications.
The government investment in quantum technologies research will be made through UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It marks the second phase of funding under The National Quantum Technologies Programme, which was launched in 2013.
UKRI chief executive Mark Walport said: “The UK is leading the field in developing Quantum Technologies and this new investment will help us make the next leap forward in the drive to link discoveries to innovative applications. UKRI is committed to ensuring the best research and researchers are supported in this area.”
Some of the technologies that are being developed will help fire fighters to see through smoke and dust, construction projects to image unmapped voids such as old mine workings, computers to solve computational problems that were previously unsolvable, and cameras that will allow vehicles ‘see’ around corners.
The University of Sussex is a major academic partner of the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, led by the University of Birmingham, and also the University of Oxford led Quantum Computing Hub.
Quantum physicists at the University of Sussex, by using quantum magnetic sensing technology, have captured live images of the inside of a working electric car battery from the outside for the first time.
Skidmore said: “Our world-leading universities are pioneering ways to apply quantum technologies that could have serious commercial benefits for UK businesses.
“That’s why I am delighted to be announcing further investment in Quantum Technology Hubs that will bring academics and innovators together and make this once futuristic technology applicable to our everyday lives.”
The Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing has secured £23.5m of the funding to continue developing real-world applications by leveraging the power of quantum physics.
The focus of the hub will be magnetometry, geophysics, navigation, timing and underpinning technology with an objective to reducing the size, weight power and cost of future sensor systems. |
