The UK government announced two sets of awards to further quantum research and development.
Quantum Computing Testbeds Competition
The first is a set of seven awards totaling £30 million ($37.6M USD) for the Quantum Computing Testbeds competition provided by the UKRI Technology Missions Fund and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre. The awardees are being asked to will develop and deliver quantum computing testbeds at NQCC’s facilities in south Oxfordshire by March 2025. The awardees represent of mix of different qubit modalities including photonic, ion trap, neutral atoms, superconducting, and spin qubits. Once the machines are installed, NQCC will test the systems to compare their performance and work on applications development using these machines.
A table of the awardees and their projects is shown below:
| Project name | Lead company | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Asteroidea – a flexible photonic quantum computing testbed for machine learning | ORCA Computing | London |
| QUARTET: The QUantum Advantage-Ready Trapped-Ion Exploration Testbed | Oxford Ionics | Oxford |
| SQALE: Scalable Quantum Atomic Lattice computing testbed | Cold Quanta UK | Warwick |
| Towards an error-corrected neutral-atom quantum computer | QuEra UK Ltd | Exeter |
| Full-stack superconducting 24-Qubit quantum computing testbed with tuneable couplers and scalable control system | Rigetti UK | London |
| ARTEMIS: Advanced Research Testbed Manipulating PhotonIc States | Aegiq | Sheffield |
| Silicon Cloverleaf | Quantum Motion | London |
Oxford Ionics has disclosed that their portion of the award amounts to £6 million ($7.5M USD). But none of the other companies have publicly announced their portion yet. Additional information about this competition is available in a news release posted on the UKRI website here and a second news release on another UK government website here. Also, all of the companies that received an award for this competition have issued their own separate press releases. You can view Rigetti’s press release here, QuEra’s press release here, Quantum Motion’s press release here, Cold Quanta UK’s (Infleqtion) press release here, ORCA Computing’s press release here, Aegiq’s press release here, and Oxford Ionics press release here.
Quantum Catalyst Fund
The Quantum Catalyst Fund is intended to fast-track the integration of quantum solutions in the public sector. This program has made six awards that covers both quantum computing and quantum sensing applications for a total of £15 million ($18.8M USD). It is being funded by Innovate UK, part of UKRI, in conjunction with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). This program started with a 3-month Phase 1 which involved 30 projects that underwent feasibility analysis. This new announcement reflects the six projects selected to the next phase of developing prototypes.
| Project name | Lead company | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Quantum Simulations: A New Era for Actinide Chemistry | Cambridge Quantinuum Ltd | London |
| Railway Quantum Inertial Navigation System for Condition Based Monitoring | MoniRail Ltd | West Midlands |
| Quantum-Enabled Brain Imaging: A Pathway to Clinical Utility | Cerca Magnetics Ltd | Nottingham |
| GCC – Gravity Cartography Catalyst | Delta g Ltd | Birmingham |
| Quantum optimised train schedules | Q-CTRL UK Ltd | London |
| Quantum computing solutions for optimisation problems in Energy Grids | Phasecraft Ltd | London |
Additional information about the Quantum Catalyst Fund awards is available in a press release from the UK government available here. Phasecraft’s portion of the award amounts to £1.2 million ($1.5M USD) and additional information about their project is available in a post on LinkedIn here. Q-CTRL’s portion of the award is for £1 million ($1.25M USD) and you can view their press release announcing the award here.
February 5, 2023