In recent decades, rapid progress in the development of quantum technologies has established their place as one of the next major technological frontiers. Future quantum technologies are expected to have a revolutionary impact on advanced materials, healthcare, finance and our national security, while also bringing with them substantial economic benefits. Previous UK governments have devoted more than £1 billion of investment into research and development in this area, with a further £2.5 billion earmarked for the next 10 years. However, we need to ensure security in the talent pipeline and sustained investment in infrastructure for UK quantum leadership to thrive. Here, Dr Thomas Elliott and Dr Jayadev Vijayan outline how policymakers can help to facilitate the UK’s quantum leadership.

• Quantum technologies provide a huge opportunity for the UK, which could become a global leader in a market predicted to be worth over £90 billion in the next decade.
• The National Graphene Institute has discovered the world’s purest silicon, and now researchers are working to use these pure samples as prototype quantum computers.
• To secure the UK’s place as a future quantum superpower, the government must continue to invest in: R&D, training, commercialisation of innovation, and in building and maintaining infrastructure.

Quantum technologies today 

Quantum physics is already key for our everyday technologies. Innovations such as semiconductor chips, which are essential for our phones and computers, are built upon quantum effects. Such technologies underpin our present ‘information age’ and we are now seeing the emergence of a new generation of technologies going beyond these, where the nature of the ‘information’ itself obeys the laws of quantum physics, often referred to as Quantum 2.0. 

Quantum technologies maximise the use of quantum effects in information processing to harness tremendous advantages, offering enhanced sensing and imaging, secure communications, novel materials, new tests of fundamental physics, and a profoundly novel and efficient form of computation. The potential applications span across the sciences and beyond, presenting both fantastic opportunities –  including greater medical diagnostic power and accelerated pharmaceutical drug discovery –  alongside immense risks and implications for national security, such as robust navigation, unbreakable encryption for secure communication, and faster decryption for codebreaking purposes. 

From the outset, the UK has been at the front of quantum technologies research. From the inception of quantum, scientists based in the UK have made many of the groundbreaking discoveries at the heart of the field. The Government established the National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP) in 2013, which supports valuable innovation and commercial initiatives such as the national ‘Quantum Hubs’ and the National Quantum Computing Centre. Published in 2023, the UK now has a National Quantum Strategy with five key missions. UK researchers remain at the forefront of quantum technologies research, and the UK is home to a vast number of quantum technologies start-ups. 

At present, we are seeing the realisation of proof-of-concept devices, from sensing to computing, and are now on the cusp of practical applications of some of these technologies. Beyond research capabilities and dedicated start-ups, we are now seeing significant investment from venture capitalists and major players in the technology industry, such as Google and Microsoft. Yet, there remain many obstacles to overcome before the full potential and benefits of quantum technologies are realised, from fundamental algorithmic design, through significant engineering challenges, to ensuring a capable quantum workforce.

Quantum at The University of Manchester 

From the breakthrough discovery of Graphene in 2010, to the establishment of the National Graphene Institute (NGI), The University of Manchester continues to boast a strong pedigree in 2D materials research. Research from The University of Manchester has discovered the world’s purest silicon; such freedom from impurities provides an excellent platform for engineering qubits, the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers. A major focus of ongoing research is in scaling up this purification process and furthering the use of these samples as prototype quantum computers. 

Systems theory – that is, how we model the interactions between a system and its surroundings – is a further strength. Not only can this help us in the design of viable hardware for quantum technologies, but it also gives us a clearer picture of the noise effects that plague and limit the capabilities of current quantum computers. With more sophisticated models of this noise, we can learn both how to mitigate against it and how to harness it for beneficial applications in complex systems modelling, such as weather, climate, and traffic. 

Research from The University of Manchester is also exploring how photons – the elementary unit of light – can be used to create and probe quantum phenomena. Hosted at the Photon Science Institute, these experiments build tools to generate, control and detect light down to the single photon level, and use light to control matter for the development of quantum sensors and observe microscopic processes at extreme length and time scales. 

The establishment of the new Centre for Quantum Science and Engineering (CQSE) at The University of Manchester aims to ensure that quantum research strengths work to boost synergistic connections, furthering our status as a prime venue for quantum research, attracting and training key talent in the field, and placing us in a leading role in bringing forth the new quantum technological frontier. 

Securing UK quantum leadership  

The proposed benefits of quantum technologies have been predicted to stimulate a global market in excess of tens of billions GBP, with the economic benefits of quantum computing alone in the region of £1 trillion. Present investment in the field, though substantial, still pales in comparison to these numbers. With the UK now on the brink of practical quantum advantages – particularly in terms of timekeeping, imaging, and sensing – there remain theoretical and engineering challenges to realising the full potential of quantum technologies, and their powerful applications. Like the industrial revolution, the quantum revolution will not be a singular point, but a constant period of rapid innovation and development. To ensure continued UK quantum leadership throughout, we must continue to invest in advancing cutting-edge quantum research and development (R&D). 

The UK needs a quantum-ready workforce, not just for developing future quantum technologies, but also to ensure these are used to their full potential in practice. This means building an effective training pipeline, not just for quantum scientists, but also for end users of quantum technologies more broadly. Quantum as a field is all too often presented as mysterious and incomprehensible for non-experts, creating a perceived high entry barrier. To combat this, support is needed for the development of training programmes designed to demystify and simplify quantum technologies for non-scientists, and the introduction of quantum modules into digital technologies upskilling programmes. Such training will create the necessary quantum-literate workers for the UK to be a leading quantum era economy. 

The UK National Quantum Technologies Progamme (NQTP) is a £1 billion dynamic collaboration between industry, academia and government. The NQTP supports five quantum hubs, each championing key domains within quantum technologies – such as quantum computing (QCI3) and sensing and imaging (QuSIT) – acting as beacons for their respective areas. To further the impact of the programme, regional quantum hubs should be created to focus on initiatives that cross quantum specialisations and combine the breadth of expertise from the domain-based hubs, supporting local research networks to pool expertise and resources. The N8 group of Northern universities currently runs semi-annual ‘Northern Quantum Meetings’ for research dissemination and collaboration formation, and agreements exist between these universities for quantum technologies research infrastructure. New regional cross-quantum hubs should be established, building on this blueprint, and should bring in key players in the Northern quantum industry, such as IBM Quantum and PsiQuantum in Daresbury and Aegiq in Sheffield. In line with both missions set out in the NQTP, and plans for economic and regional growth as laid out by the Starmer Government, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) should work collaboratively with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to establish a Northern Quantum Powerhouse Hub to further unify, co-ordinate, and grow such activities to solidify the North – and the UK’s – quantum leadership. 

The UK’s Quantum Missions set out an ambitious vision for UK quantum leadership. Realised, this will place the UK as one of the world’s future quantum superpowers, but this requires continued investment: in R&D, people and training, commercialisation of innovation, and in building and maintaining infrastructure.  

With the necessary investment and approach, the UK has the potential to become a leading nation of the forthcoming quantum revolution, capturing great benefits for society, industry, and national security.