UK quantum centre report: new industry cohort and 13 proof-of-concept awards

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Britain's national quantum programme is moving from exploring to buying. Quantum Computing Report says the National Quantum Computing Centre's 2026 annual report describes a shift towards active procurement, system benchmarking and industrial adoption

The programme is worth £2 billion, made up of £1 billion over four years plus a planned £1 billion advance market commitment. The goal is commercial platforms capable of a billion operations by 2031

The first industry cohort for the SparQ Access scheme has nine organisations, including AstraZeneca and Riverlane. The SparQ platform now lists 22 quantum processors, 76 organisations and 387 active users

The NQCC and STFC also confirmed 13 proof-of-concept awards, eight lasting three months and five lasting six months, with applications up 44 percent. Named projects include Q-CTRL on single atom catalysis, PsiQuantum on corrosion modelling, Qoro on grid resilience, Curenetics on vaccine design and IonQ on flight crew scheduling

A billion operations by 2031 is an ambitious and clear target, which helps companies plan. The jump in applications suggests real interest from industry, not just researchers. The second £1 billion is planned rather than committed, though, so keeping that funding secure will matter

Is the UK's quantum strategy on the right track? And which of these projects sounds most useful to you?

UK NQCC Advances Industrial Strategy with SparQ Access Rollout, ProQure Procurement, and 13 PoC Awards - Quantum Computing Reportquantumcomputingreport.com