The government must continue with financial support for quantum computing or risk squandering decades of investment, industry insiders have warned.
The UK’s quantum businesses have achieved major advances, establishing Britain as one of the world’s leading ecosystems and employing as many as a quarter of a million staff – but funding remains precarious and the industry cannot sustain itself with private funding alone, according to a white paper produced by quantum algorithms business Phasecraft.
“Quantum technology represents a high-risk, high-reward sector that requires long-term commitment from both public and private sectors,” the white paper states.
Governments, including the UK and the US, “must not just promise, but provide consistent and predictable investment into R&D [which] will not only support ongoing projects but also attract private investment…crucial for taking our world-leading breakthroughs from the lab through to real-world, impactful applications.
“It is therefore critical that public investment such as that which has been seen in many countries across the world is maintained until that time in which the sector is able to support itself. Failure to do so will not only compromise our ability to compete globally in quantum computing, but will also risk squandering decades of investment in the field.”
Members of the tech sector expressed their dismay last month after it was revealed the new UK government had shelved as much as £1.3bn of funding promised by the previous administration to support tech and AI projects.
That included £800m for the creation of a supercomputer at Edinburgh University and £500m for a new AI Research Resource.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which had announced the new funding only months earlier, said the plans had been abandoned because the government “is taking difficult and necessary spending decisions across all departments in the face of billions of pounds of unfunded commitments,” adding the proposals had not been fully costed.
The Phasecraft white paper also expressed concern over the prohibition of the export of quantum computers from the UK and other European countries, which it said was a “worrying sign” and a “cause for concern” from both manufacturers and users of these technologies, who rely on cross-border collaboration to advance their R&D activity.
Ashley Montanaro, co-founder and CEO of Phasecraft, said: “Quantum computing is at a critical juncture. Technical breakthroughs are made at an ever-increasing rate, and VC investments have bucked declining trends seen elsewhere in the wider tech sector.
“Yet private investment can’t maintain this momentum alone – governments continue to be a very substantial source of support for startups, a critical factor that the US and China understand having both invested heavily in quantum.”
Phasecraft was founded in 2019 by Toby Cubitt, Ashley Montanaro and John Morton, world-leading quantum scientists who have spent decades leading top research teams at University College London and University of Bristol. Since being spun out from UCL and Bristol, Phasecraft has expanded to the US and has become a leading, sought-after authority on quantum technology and policy.
