Insider Brief
- U.K. Science Minister Lord Vallance said the country’s quantum strategy is shifting from research leadership toward commercialization, with a focus on scaling companies, creating demand and retaining businesses domestically.
- The government is using procurement, regulation, skills development and industry partnerships to accelerate quantum adoption, including a previously announced £1.2 billion commitment to procure large-scale quantum computers and an upcoming £12 million funding initiative for hybrid quantum algorithms.
- Vallance announced the formation of a Quantum Growth Alliance that will bring together major U.K. companies across sectors including finance, pharmaceuticals, energy, defense and telecommunications to prepare for future quantum applications and help stimulate a domestic market for the technology.
The U.K. government is shifting its quantum strategy from research leadership toward commercial adoption, with Science Minister Lord Vallance arguing that the country’s next challenge is scaling companies and creating demand for emerging technologies.
Speaking at London Tech Week, Vallance positioned quantum technologies as a case study in how Britain intends to translate scientific excellence into economic growth. After more than a decade of public investment in quantum research, he said the country now faces the task of helping companies expand, remain headquartered in the U.K. and secure early customers.
“So if you want above average growth in this country, you’ve got to get this right,” Vallance said. “And that’s why science, research and innovation sits at the very heart of the government’s growth mission and indeed the industrial strategy.”
Vallance’s remarks came as the government highlighted quantum as one of six priority technologies in its industrial strategy, alongside artificial intelligence, semiconductors, engineering biology, advanced connectivity technologies and cybersecurity.
The minister described quantum as an example of a technology progressing through the innovation pipeline. Public investment in research helped transform quantum computing from a primarily scientific endeavor into what he characterized as an engineering challenge. That evolution has supported the creation of startups and specialized firms. The next phase, he argued, requires measures that encourage adoption and private investment.
“And that requires everything from a regulatory approach, and you’ve seen the regulatory paper on regulation and quantum, it requires skills, it requires procurement,” Vallance said. “And that procurement is critically important, you know, that’s what unlocks a big investment.”
The government has previously announced plans to allocate £1.2 billion toward the procurement of large-scale quantum computers, an effort designed to provide confidence to companies developing the technology. Vallance framed the procurement initiative as a mechanism to create an early market for domestic quantum businesses.
“And the flagship procure programme that I’ve talked about is an important first step and it’s not trivial to have an announcement about £1.2 billion to procure computers in a future spending review to make sure that we already say to companies, yes, there is something here and we’re getting it now to see the applications for companies that think they can deliver against that,” he said.
Vallance hinted that news would be released soon about a £12 million funding pool based on hybrid quantum and quantum computing algorithms.
Quantum’s Economic Role
Vallance said that quantum technologies could contribute not only to economic growth but also to national resilience and public services.
According to Vallance, potential applications include accelerating drug discovery, developing sustainable materials, improving medical diagnostics, enabling navigation systems that do not depend on satellites, strengthening sovereign timing capabilities and improving awareness across critical infrastructure systems.
“Quantum technologies will drive UK growth, but will also help with resilience and social environmental outcomes, including by enabling breakthroughs in drug discovery, sustainable materials, diagnostics, satellite-independent navigation, sovereign timing and situational awareness across critical infrastructure,” he said.
At the same time, Vallance emphasized that technological capability alone will not create an industry. Adoption by established companies will be necessary to support commercialization.
The formation of a new Quantum Growth Alliance will help connect quantum developers with major industrial users.
The alliance will bring together organizations spanning financial services, pharmaceuticals, energy, defense and telecommunications. Vallance said initial members include HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, GSK, BP, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, BT, Vodafone and QinetiQ.
“So that is a really important group we met last week and it is a working partnership to set out plans to prepare for quantum adoption,” Vallance said.
Preparing for Scale
Although fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving commercially significant problems remain under development, Vallance argued that preparation must begin now.
“Now it’s early because we don’t yet have scale quantum computers, but we will have, and we need to make sure that we create that demand signal so that people know what the potential customer base is here in the UK and in doing so build a national capability that supports not just UK businesses but also export,” he said.
He added that the convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence could become increasingly important as both fields mature.
Research to Commercialization
Throughout the speech, Vallance described the conversion of strong scientific research into globally competitive companies as one of U.K.’s longstanding challenge:
He highlighted the country’s academic performance, noting that the U.K., despite representing less than 1% of the world’s population, produces 6% of research publications and 12% of highly cited scientific papers.
The government is attempting to strengthen each stage of the innovation system through coordinated investments in research, infrastructure, skills, regulation and procurement.
According to Vallance, the government has committed £86 billion to research and development during the current spending review period. That investment includes funding for curiosity-driven research, applied research addressing societal priorities, support for innovative businesses and investments in infrastructure and workforce development.
It’s a very different environment in the UK from a decade ago,” said Vallance. “Lots and lots of spin-outs, lots of entrepreneurial people coming through the system. But we need to scale. We need to start, we need to scale and we need them to stay.”
For the quantum sector, the focus is moving beyond scientific leadership toward industrial execution.
“My message is clear,” Vallance said. “Let’s build on the UK’s extraordinary strengths. Move faster at turning ideas into impact and make the UK, which I really think it can be and it’s headed towards, make the UK one of the top places in the world to create, invest in, and scale up science and technology businesses.”
