Insider Brief
- A new white paper warns that despite more than £1 billion in public investment and early global leadership in quantum technologies, the UK could fail to capture long-term economic value without stronger action on scale-up funding, talent, supply chains, procurement and research support.
- Contributors identify shortages of late-stage growth capital, workforce challenges, and limited government procurement of quantum technologies as key barriers to achieving the UK’s goal of securing 15% of the global quantum market and private investment by 2033.
- The report also calls for greater investment in quantum networking, a reassessment of policy signals around quantum security, and continued support for fundamental research to avoid undermining the scientific base that enabled the UK’s quantum sector.
- Image: Photo by outsideclick on Pixabay
PRESS RELEASE — The United Kingdom launched the world’s first National Quantum Technologies Programme in 2014, and has invested more than £1 billion over the past decade in building an ecosystem that spans quantum computing, sensing, communications and timing. According to analysis cited in the paper, quantum computing alone is projected to create 148,000 jobs in the UK and contribute approximately £12.9 billion to GDP by 2055.
Yet contributors from across the sector warn that this early leadership is not automatically self-sustaining. The National Quantum Strategy sets an ambition to capture 15% of the global quantum market and 15% of global private investment by 2033 – but multiple contributors warn that without decisive action on scale-up capital, workforce, supply chains and procurement, the UK risks replicating the pattern seen in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, where British scientific firsts failed to generate lasting economic value at home.
Key Findings and Recommendations
The White Paper identifies five interconnected areas where action is needed:
1. Scale-up capital and investment
UK quantum companies are succeeding at the start-up stage, but multiple contributors warn of a persistent gap in risk-willing growth capital beyond Series A. Several promising UK-founded companies have already relocated to the United States, where deeper pools of late-stage investment are available. Contributors call for the British Business Bank to take a more proactive and strategically coherent approach to co-investment across the quantum sector, and for pension fund capital to be mobilised toward domestic deep-tech scale-ups.
2. Government as early adopter
Contributors are united in calling on government to act as a first customer for quantum technologies – in defence, healthcare, infrastructure, transport and secure communications – to generate the demand signals that give private investors confidence to follow. The paper points to the EU’s EuroQCI quantum networking programme (€193 million in public funding) and US equity investment into quantum computing companies as comparable models the UK should match.
3. Workforce and talent
The paper raises serious concerns about the quantum talent pipeline. A recent Institute of Physics poll found that over a quarter of UK university physics department heads expect their departments to face possible closure within two years. Contributors also highlight the damage caused by short-term postdoctoral contracts, inadequate PhD stipends, high visa fees and NHS surcharges, and slow ATAS clearance times — all of which undermine the UK’s ability to attract and retain the talent the sector needs. Higher-level apprenticeship routes for laboratory technicians are also identified as a significant and largely unaddressed gap.
4. Quantum networking and the NCSC position
Several contributors flag an inconsistency in government policy: while the UK has committed £2 billion to quantum technologies, only £120 million is allocated to quantum networking, and the National Cyber Security Centre’s longstanding position against Quantum Key Distribution is seen as suppressing private investment in quantum-safe hardware at a time when global competitors – including all 27 EU member states through EuroQCI – are moving rapidly to build quantum communication infrastructure. The paper calls for a more balanced and coherent policy signal on quantum security.
5. Fundamental research
Multiple contributors express concern that the shift toward commercialisation risks starving the fundamental research base that made the UK’s quantum sector possible in the first place. The cancellation of the second phase of the STFC Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics programme is cited as a troubling signal. Contributors call for continued investment in curiosity-driven research alongside translational and industrial programmes.
Comments
Dave Robertson, Labour MP and Chair of the APPG on Quantum Technologies, said
“What emerges from this paper is a picture of a sector that is world-class in its science, ambitious in its commercial vision, and clear-eyed about the challenges of translating early leadership into durable industrial strength. Themes such as scale-up capital, early-career researcher retention, visa and immigration friction, sovereign supply chains and policy coherence on quantum security recur across the responses, pointing to areas where parliamentary attention can have the most impact.”
Martin Wrigley, Liberal Democrat MP and Vice Chair of the APPG on Quantum Technologies, said
“This paper makes one thing very clear. The United Kingdom has the science, the people and the companies to be a global leader in quantum technologies, but on the current trajectory we risk repeating the pattern we saw in semiconductors and in artificial intelligence, where world-leading research did not translate into long-term economic value at home. The next five years will decide which way that goes.”
