Quantum Untangled - The Great British Bid for Quantum Superstardom
Or, a quantum wishlist for the UK government in its time of quantum need
Anyone with even a passing interest in the history of British space technology will shudder at the memory of Blue Streak. Originally built to be an independent launch vehicle for the UK’s nuclear deterrent, the missile was hideously expensive, which eventually persuaded the Ministry of War to palm it off to a consortium of European nations as a civilian rocket. Unfortunately, Blue Streak – now renamed Europa – turned out to be completely hopeless at launching satellites, and the project was completely cancelled in 1973.
For many, the affair proved that the British government had no business shepherding the development of emerging technologies. How times have changed. Nowadays it seems that every nation on the planet is in a race to build their own semiconductor fabs, domestic AI business or – as luck would have it for this newsletter – the rudiments of a quantum computing sector. And when it comes to quantum, the UK has discovered that actually yes, it does have significant advantages over the rest of the world when it comes to talent, startups and, last but not least, funding for those would-be unicorns, with the country ranking third in the world behind the US and China in overall investment in quantum tech.
How might the UK government keep these good times rolling? That, dear readers, was the subject of a recent Westminster policy eForum on quantum strategy attended by yours truly earlier this week. One thing the government certainly needs to keep an eye on, said Sue Daley, techUK’s director of tech and innovation, was the capability of the British quantum sector to continue attracting and retaining high-end foreign talent as industry salaries continue to rise. It could also use its immense purchasing power to become the first and most important customer for a multitude of quantum startups. If Whitehall plays its cards right, she said, “public sector procurement can act as a catalyst for market development.”
Even so, the UK will continue to face sizable obstacles in preserving its quantum lead, including its continuing exclusion from Horizon and other EU research programmes, said Sir Peter Knight, a member of the UK Quantum Technology Initiative Strategy Advisory Board. Knight also highlighted the difficulties quantum startups faced during scale-up funding rounds. “Early-stage VC funding helped the UK flourish and become second only to the US,” he said. Now, new thinking is sorely needed about how to get British startups to expand from promising, plucky underdogs to larger, Labrador or Golden Retriever-sized global competitors. Funding for this usually comes from hedge funds and investment banks – but with an anaemic attitude toward technology bets prevailing among City bigwigs, it’s clear that the government could do more to prod London institutions into taking more risks on the next generation of quantum tech.
Paying special attention to expanding the next generation of quantum researchers at source is also tremendously important, explained the University of Manchester’s Richard Curry. Government has an essential role to play in building a future quantum-literate workforce, said Curry – not just adding to its army of physicists, he said, but ensuring that many more syllabi included at least a frisson of quantum.
“We need a quantum literate workforce,” said Curry. “We also need a quantum-aware workforce in sectors outside of quantum. And, we need to ensure that the ultimate end-users of quantum technologies, not just in computing but also in sensing, for example, and position, navigation and timing, are also being engaged with, so that they provide that pull-through.”
All of these recommendations sound eminently reasonable – much more reasonable than, say, the UK government going alone and building out its own, sovereign quantum computing infrastructure as a messy homage to its earlier missile launching shenanigans. Will they help Britain retain its quantum lead? That, of course, is unknowable right now. But it’s nevertheless encouraging to know that that lead, for now, is so large – an improbable position for a cold and wet country at the fringes of the North Atlantic.
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