Insider Brief
- University of Exeter is leading the UK arm of a five-year, multi-million-pound international project to develop next-generation quantum sensors that can operate more accurately in noisy environments.
- The UK team has received £1.5 million from UK Research and Innovation and includes University of Nottingham and King’s College London, alongside a parallel Japanese collaboration led by University of Tokyo with Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and Waseda University.
- The project aims to create noise-resistant quantum sensing technologies that could improve applications such as medical imaging, GPS-free navigation, and resource exploration, while training a new cohort of quantum researchers.
PRESS RELEASE — The University of Exeter is leading the UK part of a new multi-million-pound collaborative project developing next generation quantum sensing technologies.
A £1.5m grant has been awarded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to the UK research team, which is led by Exeter and includes the University of Nottingham and King’s College London. The five-year collaboration also has a research team in Japan, led by Tokyo University alongside Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology and Waseda University Tokyo.
Professor Janet Anders from the University of Exeter is leading the UK team and said: “Almost all advanced technology relies on sensors in some way. Our phones are full of them – the camera is packed with light sensors, an acceleration sensor detects hand movements, and a magnetic sensor helps navigation. Sensors are also used in medical scanners, cars, planes, and factories.
“The goal of our project is to develop quantum sensors that are more resistant to environmental influences known as noise, enabling them to detect very weak signals, operate faster and more accurately. This enhanced sensitivity will enable us to detect things that we couldn’t measure so far – allowing new insights and technical developments.”
Dr Lucia Hackermueller from the University of Nottingham said: “Our work could unlock a range of new applications, from improved brain imaging to photon storage, to navigation devices that work without linking to a satellite. Central to this is the collaboration between the UK and Japanese partners. Each partner brings different strengths that are essential for the project objectives.”
Over the next five years researchers will develop smarter control techniques to make quantum sensors faster and more accurate in “noisy” environments. These sensors will improve medical diagnostics, navigation without GPS, and resource exploration, while advancing fundamental science and training the next generation of quantum experts.
Dr Mark Mitchison from King’s College London said: “Quantum sensors use the bizarre properties of the tiny particles that make up our Universe – like electrons, atoms, and photons – to do the same job in a much more sensitive way. These sensors already exist but they are very susceptible to influences from their environment, which obscure the signal they are trying to measure. We call these influences “noise” because they are unpredictable and undesirable, even though you can’t actually hear them.
“By combining advanced measurement and data processing techniques with state-of-the-art quantum sensors based on atoms and photons, we aim to develop these noise-resistant sensors. We will also investigate completely new kinds of sensing devices that use the complicated motion of many interacting quantum particles to boost sensitivity.”
UK institutions will host numerous extended visits by junior researchers from Japan over the next five years, while UK researchers will also go to Japan. This allows the project to share expertise and establish a network of scientists, laying the foundation for both nations’ future advances in the important area of quantum technology.
By the end of the five-year project, the team will have performed proof-of-principle experiments that demonstrate how noise-resistant quantum sensors could improve technologies such as brain imaging.
