UK and Netherlands open £1.5m quantum competition

Innovate UK has opened a £1.5m funding competition for research and development partnerships between businesses in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The programme supports commercial quantum technologies, including optical components, control electronics, detectors, computing systems, and specialised manufacturing processes. Applications opened on 3 November 2026 and close at 11am UK time on 9 February 2027.

The competition is intended to support projects that address identifiable technological challenges and have a credible route towards commercial use. UK participants can request between £250,000 and £400,000 in grant funding per project, with research lasting between 18 and 24 months. The £1.5m allocation is available to eligible UK participants across the competition, rather than representing the total combined contribution from both countries.

Collaboration with a Netherlands-based business is compulsory. The Dutch participant must be a separate legal entity that is not linked to the UK partners, ensuring that the programme supports cooperation between independent organisations rather than internal research undertaken through subsidiaries of the same group. Netherlands-based organisations apply to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO, for their national funding.

UK participants must submit their application through the Innovation Funding Service. The project must be selected independently by Innovate UK and RVO before funding can be awarded, with both countries assessing their respective participants. The national funding procedures and eligibility rules can differ, making the preparation of compatible proposals an important part of the consortium’s application.

The funding arrangements also require meaningful participation from both countries. No individual partner or country may account for more than 70% of total project costs. The consortium must show how participants will contribute technologically to the work, while the application must identify the development challenge and a practical approach to exploiting the results.

A UK-registered business must start the Innovation Funding Service application, and the UK consortium must include at least one micro, small, or medium-sized enterprise. Eligible collaborators can include universities, research and technology organisations, charities, and other recognised UK organisations. The overall partnership must include organisations requesting funding, rather than being structured entirely around unfunded participation.

The scope covers four broad technological areas. Quantum networking is one, with projects able to develop hardware and software required for commercial entanglement-based communications. These systems depend on suitable optical interfaces, timing, detection, and control arrangements, which must operate together to preserve the characteristics required for quantum information transmission.

Photonics hardware creates engineering challenges at several points in a quantum networking system. Optical sources and detectors must be connected through suitable interfaces, while losses, noise, and timing variations affect the operation of the wider equipment. Research addressing those components, their assembly, or the processes used to manufacture them can contribute to the intended commercial development.

A second theme covers quantum computing algorithms, applications, and hybrid computing workflows. These arrangements combine quantum hardware or software methods with conventional computing resources, using each for suitable parts of a computational process. Commercial implementation can involve orchestration software, processing interfaces, and control hardware, depending on the architecture and intended application.

Quantum sensing and imaging form another area of the competition. Innovate UK identifies healthcare, life sciences, and public infrastructure among the potential markets. Sensor technologies may require specialised optical, electronic, and mechanical systems to convert a laboratory measurement principle into an instrument suitable for its intended operating environment.

Measurement equipment must also retain suitable performance outside tightly controlled experimental conditions. Electrical noise, temperature changes, vibration, optical alignment, and calibration can affect the output of a sensing system. Engineering projects may therefore concentrate on integration, reliability, and repeatability alongside the sensitivity or resolution of the underlying quantum technology.

The fourth theme explicitly covers industrial manufacturing and assembly processes for quantum hardware. Supported development can involve detectors, control electronics, laser and optical systems, vacuum equipment, and cryogenic technologies. These components are used in different quantum computing and networking architectures, but share a need for manufacturing processes capable of producing equipment with controlled physical and electrical characteristics.

Manufacturing research may address how several specialised components are assembled and tested as one system. A detector or control board that performs successfully as an individual prototype must still connect reliably with the rest of the equipment, while production processes need to manage material variation, alignment, inspection, and repeatable assembly conditions.

Innovate UK encourages proposals involving testbeds and pilot production lines in either country. Such facilities can provide access to representative equipment for developing prototypes and characterising performance. Their contribution may be particularly useful where a project must establish whether an existing laboratory method can be reproduced under conditions closer to industrial manufacturing.

Feasibility studies and industrial research projects are eligible, with funding rates for commercial UK participants determined by organisation size. Micro and small organisations can receive support of up to 70% of eligible project costs, medium-sized organisations up to 60%, and large organisations up to 50%, subject to the applicable rules. Non-economic research activities have separate funding conditions.

The competition excludes market research, general roadmapping, and proposals outside the specified technological themes. Applicants must identify substantive research or development work and explain the technological contribution of the international partnership. The UK grant request must also remain within the stipulated £250,000–£400,000 range.

Projects must not start before 1 June 2027 and must finish by 30 May 2029. An online briefing is scheduled for 11 November 2026, with applicant notifications expected on 29 March 2027. Successful projects will proceed through the relevant national grant arrangements before beginning their collaborative work.

The closing date is 9 February 2027 at 11am UK time. Electronics manufacturers, photonics businesses, quantum hardware developers, and other eligible partners seeking support will need to satisfy both national application processes and establish a joint technical programme within the competition’s funding and duration limits.