Photonics Instrumental to Hubs in UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme

(Optics.org) The UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme, which began in 2013, has now entered its second phase of funding, part of which will be a £94 million investment by the UK government, via UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in four Quantum Technologies Research Hubs. The hubs are based in Birmingham, Glasgow, Oxford, and York.
In each case, photonics technologies are instrumental to the developments.
The new phase of investment was announced by Science Minister Chris Skidmore, during a visit this month to the University of Sussex, which partners with the Quantum Computing & Simulation Hub and the Quantum Technology Hub in Sensing and Timing, and will build on the earlier investments that set up the Hubs in 2014. Skidmore commented, “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 to bring academics and innovators together and make this once futuristic technology applicable to our everyday lives.”