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UK.gov launches roadmap for Quantum of Something or other

It's not really sure when or where taxpayers' money will go

Innovate UK has published a "roadmap" of future technological development to encourage commercial investment in quantum research.

The UK's self-described "innovation agency" has published A Roadmap for Quantum Technologies in the UK (PDF) as Jo Johnson, minister for universities and science, ventured to Glasgow's Quantum Imaging Hub to excite academics about the technologies.

"Interest and investment from private sector companies is fundamental to developing products and services with commercial potential," stated Innovate UK, acknowledging that "such early-stage investment is difficult to justify on payback timescales that are potentially longer than three years."

"The quantum technologies programme will help companies to identify a case for this investment," it added.

The roadmap suggests seven groups of technologies which are believed to have “near (0-5 years), mid (5-10 years) or long-term (10-plus years) potential” for commercial exploitation:

  • Component technologies
  • UK atomic clocks
  • Quantum sensors
  • Quantum inertial sensors
  • Quantum communications
  • Quantum enhanced imaging
  • Quantum computers

It follows a £15m investment in training from the last government, which intended to aid the training of the "next generation of quantum engineers".

The exploitation of quantum technologies was given equal priority in the Strategic Plan for 2015 by the Research Council, alongside concerns about establishing energy security, developing a low-carbon future, advancing regenerative medicine, designing and building future cities, maintaining cyber security, and growing manufacturing.

The demand for quantum technologies is being driven by large and significant societal challenges, including the need to build in more inhospitable places, for greater security around information and transactions, for better medicines and therapies, and to counter cyber terrorism.

Talking to The Register previously, Dr Ross Anderson of the University of Cambridge suggested that there were "a number of issues at different levels" with recent quantum-focused proposals, especially quantum communications and cryptography.

The roadmap claims that "prototypes of point-to-point quantum encryption equipment are already available, and commercial uptake is expected to occur over the next 0-5 years," but ...

There are a lot of doubts that certain quantum technologies could ever work.

We don't need [quantum crypto], we have working cryptography now.

"What is really needed," continued Anderson, "is a form of peer-reviewed spending distribution among academics". ®

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