Innovate UK Launches £33M Funding Round for Quantum Hardware
Meta Description: Innovate UK has launched a £33 million funding competition to accelerate the development of quantum computing hardware. Here’s everything you need to know about eligibility, scope, and key deadlines.
The United Kingdom is doubling down on its ambition to lead the global quantum computing race. In a significant move for the nation’s deep tech sector, Innovate UK has unveiled a new £33 million funding competition aimed squarely at solving the most stubborn hardware challenges in quantum computing.
This isn’t just another research grant. It is a targeted effort to bridge the gap between laboratory breakthroughs and commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum machines—the kind of technology that could redefine industries from pharmaceuticals to finance.
The Core Objective: Scaling Beyond the Lab
The new competition, titled “Scaling performance of quantum computing hardware: CR&D,” is designed to support the development and production readiness of device-level hardware and associated software technologies. The ultimate goal is to address critical system development challenges for universal fault-tolerant quantum computers.
For years, the quantum industry has been stuck in what is often called the “NISQ” era—Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices. While these machines can perform impressive tricks, they lack the error correction and stability required for truly transformative work. This funding round is explicitly targeting the “second generation” of quantum technologies, focusing on the generation and coherent control of quantum states, superposition, and entanglement.
Who Is This For? Eligibility at a Glance
This funding is not for solo researchers. Innovate UK has designed this as a collaborative competition, meaning partnerships are mandatory.
Lead Organisation:
To lead a project, your organisation must be a UK-registered business of any size or a Research and Technology Organisation (RTO). Notably, academic institutions cannot lead a project, though they can participate as collaborators.
Project Team:
To collaborate with a lead, organisations must be UK-registered businesses, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations, or RTOs.
Financial Parameters:
- Grant Request: Each project must request between £1 million and £3.5 million.
- Project Duration: Projects must last between 24 and 36 months.
- Timeline: Projects must start by 1 January 2027 and end by 31 December 2029.
- Cost Sharing: No single partner can account for more than 75% of the total eligible costs.
Funding rates vary by organisation size and type. Micro and small organisations can claim up to 70% of eligible costs, while large organisations can claim up to 50%. Research organisations can often access up to 100% funding for their eligible costs.
What Exactly Are They Funding?
Innovate UK has identified four specific “capability gaps” that projects must address. The scope is technology-agnostic, meaning it is open to superconducting, trapped ion, neutral atom, photonic, and spin qubit modalities.
The four key technical themes are:
- Error Rate Suppression: Achieving a verifiable and uniform below-threshold error rate across the qubit package.
- Scalable Control Architecture: Developing scalable input and output channel architectures for the specified qubit package.
- Syndrome Processing: Minimising latency and maximising throughput of the quantum syndrome processing cycle (encoding, measuring, readout, and decoding) for application runtime performance at scale.
- Modular Interconnect: Building modular interconnect and qubit networking capabilities to achieve critical rate and fidelity performance across a distributed qubit package.
Projects that demonstrate commercially viable industrial manufacturing and assembly processes for building hardware devices in the UK are particularly encouraged.
The Strategic Context: Why This Matters Now
This funding round does not exist in a vacuum. It is a critical component of the UK’s broader National Quantum Strategy, which aims to capture 15% of the global quantum market by 2033.
The UK has already invested over £1 billion in quantum technologies over the past decade. However, a recent white paper from a cross-party parliamentary group warned that the UK risks repeating the mistakes of the semiconductor and AI industries—where British scientific firsts failed to generate lasting economic value at home. The persistent gap in late-stage growth capital has already seen promising UK quantum companies relocate to the United States.
This £33 million competition is part of a broader effort to plug that gap. It sits alongside other major initiatives, including the ProQure programme, which is a separate £1 billion programme for large-scale quantum computing procurement beyond 2030. The ProQure Phase 1 contracts, funded up to £14 million each, are designed to validate technologies and deploy operational testbeds for independent evaluation.
The message is clear: the UK government is trying to act as an early adopter and de-risk the path to commercialisation for quantum hardware developers.
The Competitive Landscape: What to Expect
Applicants should be prepared for stiff competition. Innovate UK estimates a 30% chance of success for this competition, based on similar past calls.
The assessment will be conducted by three independent assessors who will evaluate the proposal against the competition’s criteria, including alignment with the quantum computing mission and the quality of the delivery plan. Innovate UK reserves the right to take a “portfolio approach” to ensure a balance across technologies, markets, and locations.
For those seeking partners, Innovate UK Business Connect has established a networking platform to help organisations find collaborators. The platform will remain available until February 2027 to facilitate connections for this and upcoming quantum computing calls.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can a single company apply for this funding?
No. This competition is open to collaborations only. To lead a project, your organisation must be a UK-registered business or an RTO, and you must partner with other eligible organisations. If an RTO leads, it must collaborate with at least two businesses.
2. What is the maximum amount of funding I can request?
Each project can request a total grant of between £1 million and £3.5 million. This funding can cover up to 70% of your eligible project costs, depending on the size of your organisation.
3. What technology readiness level (TRL) is expected?
The competition focuses on industrial research, which involves acquiring new knowledge for developing new products or bringing about significant improvements in existing ones. It supports the creation of component parts of complex systems, including prototypes in a laboratory or simulated environment.
4. Can academic institutions lead a project?
No. Academic institutions cannot lead a project in this competition. They can, however, participate as collaborators and may be eligible for funding of up to 80% of their Full Economic Cost (FEC).
5. What is the application deadline?
The competition closes on 18 September 2026 at 11:00 am. It opened on 27 June 2026. Innovate UK held an online briefing on 7 July 2026, and the recording and slides are available on the application portal.
6. Does my project work need to be done in the UK?
Yes. Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.
7. What are the specific technical areas the funding targets?
Projects must target one or more of the following: achieving below-threshold error rates, scalable control architectures, minimising latency in syndrome processing, and modular interconnect for distributed qubit packages.
The UK’s quantum hardware sector is at an inflection point. This £33 million injection is designed to ensure that the critical components—the chips, the control systems, the interconnects—are developed and manufactured on British soil. For the right consortium with the right roadmap, it is a significant opportunity to help build the infrastructure of the coming quantum age.
