A packed audience at the Royal Society in London was given sight of the new technologies being developed at the UK’s four Quantum Technologies Hubs yesterday at the first Quantum Technology Showcase.

Three hundred delegates from industry, business and government heard how the £270 million UK National Quantum Technologies Programme (UKNQTP) was drawing the country’s research base together with industry, research funding bodies and other government agencies to accelerate the transition of new technologies from the laboratory to industry.

Research teams from the universities and companies involved in the Hubs demonstrated how the unique properties of the quantum realm are being used to advance technologies in measurement, security, computing, imaging and sensing.

Projects to develop superfast cameras that can see round corners, ultra-sensitive gravity sensors that can find oil and gas reservoirs and unbreakable encryption systems that can detect eavesdropping of optical fibres were just some of the exhibits on show.

Professor Philip Nelson, Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which funds the Hubs and other parts of the programme said; 

“This showcase is a really exciting event and there is clearly a huge amount of interest in what the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme can deliver. The fact that there is a constant conversation and circulation of knowledge between the partners about the research and its potential uses makes this national programme a first. I am confident that it will keep the UK in the vanguard of many research areas and bring about world changing technologies.”

The event was organised to mark the first anniversary of the UK National Quantum Technology Hubs which were set up in November 2014. The Hubs have been formed by a consortium of 17 universities led by the universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Oxford and York, funded by EPSRC.

Professor David Delpy, Chair of the UKNQTP said:

“The vision for the programme is a coherent community that gives the UK a world-leading position in these emerging multi-million pound markets. The five year programme will keep us at the leading edge and provide an easy entry point for companies interested in exploiting the potential of quantum technologies.”

The UK National Quantum Technologies Programme (UKNQTP) aims to ensure the successful transition of quantum technologies from laboratory to industry. 

The University of Birmingham UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Metrology will dramatically improve the accuracy of measurement of time, frequency, rotation, magnetic fields, gravity and other key fundamental measures, which will have impact across a wide range of fields, from electronic stock trading to GPS navigation They will deliver unprecedented views into the ground allowing reduced roadworks, detecting sinkholes and finding archaeological treasures.

The Birmingham-led hub will partner with academics at the universities of Southampton, Strathclyde, Sussex, Nottingham and Glasgow and aims to build a supply chain for quantum sensor technology, build a series of quantum sensor and metrology prototype devices and develop the market and links between academia and industry.

The University of Glasgow QuantIC (Quantum Enhanced Imaging / Sensing) Hub will develop new types of camera with unprecedented sensitivity and the capacity to time the arrival of the detected light. These cameras will open up new markets in medical imaging; security and environmental monitoring; and manufacturing of high value materials. 

The University of Glasgow-led hub will partner with academics from the universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Oxford, Strathclyde, and Heriot-Watt University.

The University of Oxford Networked Quantum Information Technologies (NQIT) (Quantum Computing/Simulation) Hub will enable users to solve problems that even the most powerful of today's supercomputers struggle with.This includes making sense of ‘big data’. The Oxford-led hub will partner with academics from the universities of Bath, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Southampton, Strathclyde, Sussex  and Warwick, as well as dozens of national and international companies. 

The University of York Quantum Communications Hub is aiming to transform the security of data and transactions across multiple sectors and users, ranging from government and industry to commerce and consumers. The York-led hub is aiming for breakthroughs that will lead to widespread and affordable use of the technology. These include: chip-scale integration based on Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), thus reducing the size and manufacturing costs of equipment; building a UK Quantum network for the demonstration and testing of new equipment and services - providing early access to advanced technologies for industry, business clusters and communities of users.    

The Hub partnership includes leading researchers from the universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Heriot-Watt, Leeds, Royal Holloway, Sheffield, Strathclyde and York, collaborating with world-class researchers working in the labs of industrial partners.

Several companies and organisations are formally involved in one or more of the Hubs these include: BT, Toshiba, e2v, M Squared Lasers, Dstl, AWE, NPL, Thales, Coherent Lasers, BP, Compound Semiconductor, GCHQ, Selex, Oxford Instruments, and Kelvin Nanotechnology.

The programme is delivered by EPSRC, Innovate UK, BIS, NPL, GCHQ, DSTL and the KTN. For more information, visithttp://uknqt.epsrc.ac.uk/.