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| Established | 2013 |
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| Location | UK |
| Website | uknqt.ukri.org |
The UK National Quantum Technologies Programme (UKNQTP) is a programme set up by the UK government [1] to translate academic work on quantum mechanics, and the effects of quantum superposition and quantum entanglement into new products and services. It brings UK physicists and engineers together with companies and entrepreneurs who have an interest in commercialising the technology.
The "second quantum revolution", or "quantum 2.0" is a term that is often used to describe quantum technologies based on superposition and entanglement. Originally described in a 1997 book by Gerard J. Milburn, [2] which was then followed by a 2003 article by Jonathan P. Dowling and Gerard J. Milburn, [3] [4] as well as a 2003 article by David Deutsch. [5] These technologies use equipment such as highly stabilised laser systems, magneto-optical traps, cryogenic cooled solid state devices, ion traps and vacuum systems to create, manipulate and then use quantum effects for a number of different purposes. These include: quantum information processing, such as quantum computing, quantum simulation, quantum secure communications, quantum sensing and metrology and quantum imaging, and are widely believed to offer capabilities that will out-perform existing and future classical technologies.
The programme has contributed to the vast number of quantum technologies start-ups within the UK. Examples include Orca Computing, Universal Quantum, Oxford Ionics, [6] Delta g and Cerca Magnetics.
The vision of the UK National Quantum Technologies programme is to "create a coherent government, industry and academic quantum technology community that gives the UK a world-leading position in the emerging multi-billion-pound new quantum technology markets, and to substantially enhance the value of some of the biggest UK-based industries." [7] [8]
In 2013, a group of key stakeholders were brought together by DSTL at Chicheley Hall. The UKNQTP was then initiated by a £270 million investment by the UK Chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne in the Autumn Statement 2013. [9] In addition to this, the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) separately announced a £30 million investment into a programme to produce demonstrator devices.
The primary focus of the UKNQTP are five 'hubs' for quantum technologies: [10] [11]
Past hubs include:
The UKQTP is advised by the Quantum Technologies Strategic Advisory Board, which is chaired by Professor David Delpy, it also consists of Professor Sir Peter Knight, Baroness Neville-Jones, Professor Gerald Milburn, Professor Ian Walmsley and other leading individuals from industry, academia and public sector.
The programme is delivered by several UK public bodies: UK government Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, EPSRC, STFC, Innovate UK, Dstl, NPL, GCHQ and Innovate UK Business Connect.
The UKQTP has received some attention from the UK media, with an interview with Professor Miles Padgett on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on 11 November 2015 and articles in New Scientist , [20] and Nature materials [21]
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Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method that implements a cryptographic protocol involving components of quantum mechanics. It enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which then can be used to encrypt and decrypt messages. The process of quantum key distribution is not to be confused with quantum cryptography, as it is the best-known example of a quantum-cryptographic task.
This is a timeline of quantum computing.
E-Science or eScience is computationally intensive science that is carried out in highly distributed network environments, or science that uses immense data sets that require grid computing; the term sometimes includes technologies that enable distributed collaboration, such as the Access Grid. The term was created by John Taylor, the Director General of the United Kingdom's Office of Science and Technology in 1999 and was used to describe a large funding initiative starting in November 2000. E-science has been more broadly interpreted since then, as "the application of computer technology to the undertaking of modern scientific investigation, including the preparation, experimentation, data collection, results dissemination, and long-term storage and accessibility of all materials generated through the scientific process. These may include data modeling and analysis, electronic/digitized laboratory notebooks, raw and fitted data sets, manuscript production and draft versions, pre-prints, and print and/or electronic publications." In 2014, IEEE eScience Conference Series condensed the definition to "eScience promotes innovation in collaborative, computationally- or data-intensive research across all disciplines, throughout the research lifecycle" in one of the working definitions used by the organizers. E-science encompasses "what is often referred to as big data [which] has revolutionized science... [such as] the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN... [that] generates around 780 terabytes per year... highly data intensive modern fields of science...that generate large amounts of E-science data include: computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics" and the human digital footprint for the social sciences.
Peter V. Coveney is a British chemist who is Professor of Physical Chemistry, Honorary Professor of Computer Science, and the Director of the Centre for Computational Science (CCS) and Associate Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London (UCL). He is also a Professor of Applied High Performance Computing at University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Professor Adjunct at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Member of Academia Europaea. Coveney is active in a broad area of interdisciplinary research including condensed matter physics and chemistry, materials science, as well as life and medical sciences in all of which high performance computing plays a major role. The citation about Coveney on his election as a FREng says: Coveney "has made outstanding contributions across a wide range of scientific and engineering fields, including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, materials, computer science, high performance computing and biomedicine, much of it harnessing the power of supercomputing to conduct original research at unprecedented space and time scales. He has shown outstanding leadership across these fields, manifested through running multiple initiatives and multi-partner interdisciplinary grants, in the UK, Europe and the US. His achievements at national and international level in advocacy and enablement are exceptional".
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universities in the United Kingdom. EPSRC research areas include mathematics, physics, chemistry, artificial intelligence and computer science, but exclude particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy. Since 2018 it has been part of UK Research and Innovation, which is funded through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is "to maximise the impact of science and technology for the defence and security of the UK". The agency is headed by Paul Hollinshead as its chief executive, with the board being chaired by Adrian Belton. Ministerial responsibility lies with the Minister for Defence Procurement.
Jonathan P. Dowling was an Irish-American researcher and professor in theoretical physics, known for his work on quantum technology, particularly for exploiting quantum entanglement for applications to quantum metrology, quantum sensing, and quantum imaging.
IOP Publishing is the publishing company of the Institute of Physics. It provides publications through which scientific research is distributed worldwide, including journals, community websites, magazines, conference proceedings and books. The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support physics through the activities of the Institute.
The UK Large-Scale Complex IT Systems (LSCITS) Initiative is a research and graduate education programme focusing on the problems of developing large-scale, complex IT systems. The initiative is funded by the EPSRC, with more than ten million pounds of funding awarded between 2006 and 2013.
Ian Alexander Walmsley is Provost of Imperial College London where he is also Chair of Experimental Physics. He was previously pro-vice-chancellor for research and Hooke Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Oxford, and a professorial fellow at St Hugh's College, Oxford. He is also director of the NQIT hub within the UK National Quantum Technology Programme, which is led by the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America.
The Alan Turing Institute is the United Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, founded in 2015 and largely funded by the UK government. It is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computing pioneer.
NQIT is a quantum computing research hub established in 2014 as part of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme. NQIT is a consortium of 9 UK universities and 30 partners, which received funding of £38m over a 5-year period.
Dame Xiangqian "Jane" Jiang is a Professor of Precision Metrology at the Huazhong University Of Science And Technology (HUST) and University of Huddersfield. She is the Director of the EPSRC Future Advanced Metrology HUB and is the Royal Academy Engineering/Renishaw Chair in Precision Metrology.
Hazel Jane Read Hall is a British Information scientist and academic. She is Emeritus Professor in the School of Computing, Engineering, and Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland and Docent in Information Studies in the School of Business and Economics at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.
Nicole Metje PhD, MCInstCES, MASCE, FHEA is professor of infrastructure monitoring, head of the Power and Infrastructure Research Group, and deputy director for sensors of the UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility at the University of Birmingham. She plays a significant role in the development and application of sensors for buried infrastructure assessment and monitoring.
Elham Kashefi is a Professor of Computer Science and Personal Chair in quantum computing at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, and a Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) researcher at the Sorbonne University. She is known as one of the inventors of blind quantum computing. Her work has included contributions to quantum cryptography, verification of quantum computing, and cloud quantum computing.
Quantum engineering is the development of technology that capitalizes on the laws of quantum mechanics. Quantum engineering uses quantum mechanics as a toolbox for the development of quantum technologies, such as quantum sensors or quantum computers.
Vivien Mary Kendon is a British physicist who is Professor of Quantum Technology at the University of Strathclyde. Her research considers quantum computation and the properties of quantum walks. She is the director of the Computational Collaborative Project: Quantum Computing, which looks to develop useful applications of quantum computers.
Verian Group is an independent research, evidence, evaluation, and communications agency, headquartered in Millbank, London, UK. It has offices in continental Europe, the Asia–Pacific, and US. Verian conducts social research, program evaluation, and media analysis for governments, local communities, interest groups, trade unions, NGOs, and private sector organisations. British Politics and Policy, a blog run by the London School of Economics (LSE), evaluated Verian's polling on the run up to the 2016 UK Brexit referendum; Verian was one of a minority to correctly forecast the result and had the lowest bias. Verian's opinion polling for the 2024 United Kingdom general election also came closest to the final result.