UK backs quantum firms with £50 million

On October 13, 2026, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, UK Research and Innovation, and minister Chris McDonald announced backing for quantum firms. The government offered businesses across the UK a share of 50 million pounds to help turn quantum work into products. The named directions are railway fault detectors, a portable eye scanner, and navigation that works when GPS fails. The funding runs through UK Research and Innovation's Sensing and Positioning, Navigation and Timing competition.

Three companies anchor the announcement. MoniRail, based in the West Midlands, leads a quantum monitoring system that could locate faults in railway tracks and signaling equipment where GPS cannot reach. The government says finding those faults sooner could let track staff deal with problems as they arise. Siloton, based in Bristol, is developing a handheld quantum eye scanner meant to offer advanced eye diagnostics outside specialist hospitals. ColdQuanta UK, based in Oxfordshire, is backed to develop a compact mobile quantum radio that can locate signals with high accuracy. The government says that radio could support military operational intelligence, infrastructure such as airports, and emergency responders looking for distress signals.

The package sits inside a stated goal of making the UK a leader in quantum sensing by 2030, following up to 2 billion pounds of investment announced earlier this year. UK Research and Innovation is also investing 20 million pounds in UK businesses to build domestic capability in quantum communication networks. Sheffield-based Aegiq is one company supported under that network funding, developing components such as lasers and photonic chips. A separate expansion of 8 million pounds for the QuEST apprentices program is intended to open routes into skilled quantum jobs. By 2030, the scheme aims to equip 150 apprentices studying engineering subjects. McDonald said real-world uses are now within reach, including fewer train delays, earlier appointments in busy parts of the NHS, and armed forces that stay connected. Professor Charlotte Deane of UK Research and Innovation said the funding is meant to help these businesses grow the technology and keep related supply chains in the UK, including for cases where ordinary navigation cannot be relied on.

The announcement does not say that the monitor, the scanner, or the radio is already in service, and it does not give a date for when any of them will be.