Seventeen new projects, which include one involving Strathclyde University, will tackle fundamental research questions with cutting edge quantum technology.

The research ranges from the exploration of antimatter gravity to dark matter detection, with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) investing a total of £6 million. The funding will support its existing Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics (QTFP) programme.

The programme has received joint funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Grants encourage high-risk discovery and aim to demonstrate how quantum tech can solve long-standing questions in fundamental physics and include researchers from 18 different institutions across the UK.

Professor Stuart Reid from Strathclyde is part of the ‘Increasing the science reach for Quantum Enhanced Interferometry’ project along with researchers at Cardiff University, University of Birmingham, University of Warwick, and the University of Glasgow.

The consortium of researchers is establishing ground-breaking technologies to search for elusive dark matter in our universe, and to study the quantum (bittiness) aspects of space-time.

Commenting on the news, Professor Reid said: “We are delighted to be involved in this research, which is being enabled through underpinning manufacturing technologies hosted within the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland.

“It demonstrates the need for multidisciplinary approaches to help answer some of the big outstanding questions in physics.”

Professor Grahame Blair, STFC Executive Director, Programmes, added: “This new cohort of projects should make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the universe using cutting-edge quantum tech such as quantum computing, imaging, sensing, and simulations.

“The new grants continue to support the UK research community in exploring the diversity of quantum technology applications for fundamental science – from neutrino mass studies to searches for violations of fundamental symmetries of nature.”

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Back in March, scientists from Strathclyde Uni joined a partnership of 12 countries to establish Global Virtual Workshops, challenging the issues of poverty; hunger; health and wellbeing; climate action; clean water and sanitation and sustainable cities and communities.

The International Network for Sensor and Timing Applications in Quantum Technologies (INSTA-QT), received £500,000 in EPSRC funding to take a strategic approach in linking problem areas to carefully considered solutions, with the advantage of collaborating in a collectively large number of experts across a wide geographical breadth.

In May last year, Strathclyde announced it was working with a Canadian institution on a quantum project to develop a way to securely transmit information around the world.

The scheme looked to create a secure global communications network using quantum encryption technology to protect messages.

As part of the test, the university said it would develop the source of quantum signals for the satellite and will test new ways to distribute quantum encryption keys from space.

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