Engineer Enea: EPSRC invests £12m in quantum fellowships

The UK’s ability to lead the world in quantum science and technologies has been boosted by the announcement of a £12million investment in key researchers.

The Quantum Technologies Fellowships, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will support individuals and their teams to help realise the country’s potential.

The fellowships, part of the £270m National Quantum Technology Programme, are aimed at academics whose research focuses on the direct exploitation of quantum phenomena, such as superposition or entanglement.

Minister for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson said: “We want Britain to be the best place in Europe to innovate, and this investment in UK research will support the next generation of scientists and secure our leadership in world-class quantum research.”

The Fellowships have been awarded to:

• Professor John Rarity, University of Bristol: Spin-photon systems for scalable quantum processors.
• Professor Peter Smith, University of Southampton: Quantum Integrated Nonlinear Technologies for Enabling Stable, Scaleable, Engineered Commercial Exploitation
• Professor Gerald Buller, Heriot-Watt University: Next Generation Imaging using Sparse Single-Photon Data
• Dr Elham Kashefi, University of Edinburgh: Verification of Quantum Technology
• Professor Douglas Paul: University of Glasgow: Engineering Quantum Technology Systems on a Silicon Platform
• Dr Jonathan Matthews, University of Bristol: Photonic Quantum-Enhanced Sensors
• Dr Earl Campbell, University of Sheffield: Towards fault-tolerant quantum computing with minimal resources
• Dr Alessandro Fedrizzi, Heriot-Watt University: QuigaByte-Gigahertz-clocked telecom cluster states for next generation quantum photonics
• Dr Jose Verdu Galiana, University of Sussex: Quantum Microwave Sensor
• Dr Jonathan Pritchard, University of Strathclyde: A Hybrid Atom-Photon-Superconductor Quantum Interface

Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s chief executive, added: “These Fellowships are a key part of the UK’s national Programme for Quantum Technologies; they will allow our current and future research leaders in the field to research, discover and innovate.”