The government has invited businesses to apply for a share of up to £33 million to work with others on developing new products and services that exploit quantum technologies.

The second generation of technologies based on new quantum effects promises to deliver more secure digital communication, improved construction and radical increases in computing power.

This, the government says, could transform many business sectors including automotive, healthcare, infrastructure, telecommunications, cybersecurity and defence.

As such, there is up to £33 million available from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to invest in projects that aim to speed up commercialisation of these quantum technologies.

Projects must aim to speed up commercialisation of second-generation quantum technologies and should address at least one of the following areas:

• connectivity and techniques for securing data in storage and in flight
• situational awareness including autonomous systems; sensors and detectors for the built environment, transport and infrastructure; imaging and sensing of things currently invisible
• transformational computing to solve currently unmanageable problems

The competition has 2 strands:

• up to £27 million is available for consortia undertaking large research projects
• up to £6 million is available for projects with costs of less than £500,000 that can be undertaken by companies working alone or with partners

The competition opens on 5 August 2019, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 30 October 2019.