The UK government has announced the first winners of a £15 million competition, the Quantum Catalyst Fund, aimed at exploring the benefits of using quantum technologies across various sectors such as health, transport, and net zero.
The UK government has announced the first winners of a £15 million Quantum Catalyst Fund competition, aimed at exploring the benefits of quantum technologies in sectors such as health, transport and net zero. The fund seeks to accelerate the adoption of quantum solutions in the public sector. Quantum technologies, identified as one of the government’s five critical technologies, offer potential solutions to complex problems that surpass the capabilities of classical computers. The competition is delivered by Innovate UK and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The National Quantum Strategy, published in March 2023, commits £2.5 billion to developing quantum technologies in the UK over ten years.
Quantum Catalyst Fund to Boost Public Sector Adoption of Quantum Solutions
The UK government has announced the first winners of a £15 million competition aimed at exploring the benefits of using quantum technologies in various sectors such as health, transport, and net zero. The Quantum Catalyst Fund is designed to speed up the adoption of quantum solutions by the public sector, positioning the UK government to fully utilise the benefits of these technologies across a range of policy areas.
Quantum technologies, identified as one of the government’s five critical technologies, are devices and systems that use quantum mechanics to provide capabilities beyond those of traditional binary computers. They offer potential solutions to some of society’s greatest challenges and provide future capabilities that are yet to be explored. These technologies have the potential to tackle complex problems that currently surpass the capacities of even the most advanced classical computers, and will allow us to reach new frontiers in sensing, timing, imaging, and communications.
Over the next decade, quantum technologies are expected to revolutionise many aspects of life in the UK and bring enormous benefits such as helping to grow the economy and create well-paid jobs across the country – one of the Prime Minister’s five priorities.
Quantum Technologies and Their Potential Impact
Quantum computers could significantly increase computing power, revolutionising our healthcare system – from dramatically improved drug discovery techniques to providing personalised treatment to an individual based on genetic and environmental factors. Quantum sensing and imaging can provide unprecedented insight about what lies beneath the ground – saving billions in environmental monitoring and on large-scale construction projects. Quantum clocks and communication could help us develop new navigation and timing capabilities without a satellite link, providing even greater resilience for railways, telecommunications and emergency services.
The first round of feasibility studies under the new fund will explore how this technology can provide new capabilities in public services, such as quantum-enabled brain imaging in healthcare to tackle epilepsy, concussion, and dementia, or quantum computing that can solve optimisation problems in energy grids, helping us to reach net zero.
Areas of Interest for Quantum Technologies
The government has identified several areas of interest for applying quantum technologies. These include transport, where quantum technologies could improve our ability to survey underground to improve infrastructure project delivery or provide more precise positioning and timing of trains in real time. In the space sector, quantum technologies might be integrated into space-based platforms to provide insights into the Earth’s climate and its environment or be utilised for space-based applications.
In healthcare, quantum technologies could provide new or enhanced capabilities. They could also be used to enhance our ability to detect anomalies in cargo and parcels, such as contraband or people smuggling. In defence, quantum computing could solve data analytics challenges. And in the pursuit of net zero, quantum technologies could play a crucial role.
The Quantum Catalyst Fund and the National Quantum Technologies Programme
The competition is being delivered by Innovate UK in conjunction with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). It is part of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme which has been running since 2014 to put the UK at the forefront of quantum technologies globally.
Thirty projects have been awarded funding in phase 1 of the competition, which will run for 3 months and explore the feasibility of applying quantum technologies to help solve challenges for the government. At the end of phase one, the most promising concepts will be awarded a contract to phase 2 to develop a prototype and demonstrate the solution.
The National Quantum Strategy
The National Quantum Strategy, published in March 2023, commits £2.5 billion to developing quantum technologies in the UK over the ten years from 2024 – more than doubling current public investment, which will aim to generate an additional £1 billion of private investment into the programme.
The strategy sets out a bold and ambitious approach to supporting quantum technologies in the UK across the broad spectrum of quantum computing, sensing, timing, imaging and communications. It sets out how the UK will develop its strengths across different hardware platforms, software and components, and reinforce our capabilities throughout the supply chains.
“Quantum technologies – one of the government’s five critical technologies – are devices and systems using quantum mechanics to provide capabilities that ‘classical’ machines like binary computers cannot. They already offer possible solutions to some of our greatest challenges in society and provide future capabilities that are yet to be explored. These technologies hold the potential to tackle intricate problems that currently surpass the capacities of even the most advanced classical computers and will allow us to reach new frontiers in sensing, timing, imaging, and communications. Over the next ten years, quantum technologies are expected to revolutionise many aspects of life in the UK and bring enormous benefits such as helping to grow our economy and create well-paid jobs across the country – one of the Prime Minister’s five priorities.”
“UK Minister of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman MP, said: The Quantum revolution is set to be as transformational as the rise of classical computing, and is now starting to open up whole new fields from superfast computing to navigation, allowing us to do things that were previously impossible. We can use our scientific leadership in quantum to build exciting new career paths, businesses and even whole sectors here in the UK, boosting economic growth. We are determined to continue to invest and lead from the front in quantum infrastructure, regulation, standards and skills to fully exploit it’s potential to drive new economic opportunities. Our Quantum Catalyst Fund will help to push the boundaries of this technology’s development, and use public sector procurement to help nurture new companies and deliver benefits for citizens in public services to benefit us all.”
Executive Summary
The UK government has launched a £15 million Quantum Catalyst Fund to expedite the adoption of quantum technologies in public sectors such as health, transport, and net zero initiatives. Quantum technologies, which utilise quantum mechanics to surpass the capabilities of classical machines, are expected to revolutionise various aspects of life in the UK over the next decade, from enhancing drug discovery and personalised healthcare to improving environmental monitoring and construction projects.
- The UK government has announced the first winners of a £15 million Quantum Catalyst Fund competition, aimed at exploring the benefits of using quantum technologies in various sectors such as health, transport, and net zero.
- Quantum technologies, identified as one of the government’s five critical technologies, use quantum mechanics to provide capabilities beyond those of traditional binary computers.
- These technologies could potentially address complex problems that surpass the capacities of even the most advanced classical computers, and could revolutionise many aspects of life in the UK over the next decade.
- Examples of potential applications include improved drug discovery techniques and personalised treatment in healthcare, environmental monitoring and construction projects, and new navigation and timing capabilities for railways, telecommunications, and emergency services.
- The first round of feasibility studies under the new fund will explore how this technology can provide new capabilities in public services, such as quantum-enabled brain imaging in healthcare and quantum computing for optimisation problems in energy grids.
- The competition is being delivered by Innovate UK in conjunction with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), as part of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme.
- UK Minister of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman MP, emphasised the transformative potential of the quantum revolution and the UK’s commitment to leading in quantum infrastructure, regulation, standards, and skills.
- 30 projects have been awarded funding in phase 1 of the competition, which will run for 3 months and explore the feasibility of applying quantum technologies to help solve challenges for government.
Read More.
