Innovate UK £14.3M Call for Quantum Enabled Sensing and PNT Closes September 16
Key Takeaways
Grant pool: Innovate UK will invest up to £14.3 million (about $19.3 million USD) in collaborative adoption projects.
Application window: The Quantum Enabled Sensing and PNT competition opened August 4, 2026 and closes September 16, 2026 at 11:00am UK time.
Project size: Grant requests must fall between £1 million and £3 million for work lasting 12 to 24 months.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), opened a grant competition on August 4, 2026 for a share of up to £14.3 million (about $19.3 million USD) to accelerate adoption of quantum enabled sensing and PNT technologies. UK registered businesses leading collaborations may request £1 million to £3 million (about $1.4 million to $4.1 million USD) for projects of 12 to 24 months, with work slated to start by December 1, 2026 and finish by November 30, 2028.
The call targets specific technical and commercial barriers to customer use in healthcare, transport, telecoms, energy, and defence. Applications close September 16, 2026 at 11:00am UK time via the Innovation Funding Service.
Second Generation Scope and Themes
Innovate UK requires projects to exploit second generation quantum technologies. Official guidance defines those technologies as systems involving generation and coherent control of quantum states, with superposition or entanglement as resulting phenomena. Single photon generation and detection sit inside scope.
Proposals must name one or more barriers to adoption for a specific quantum enabled sensing or PNT technology, then deliver an innovative solution and show feasibility plus commercial viability. Field trials, proof of concept demonstrations, and end user engagement rank as primary activities alongside any required technical development. The three competition themes cover quantum enabled sensing for healthcare, quantum enabled PNT, and quantum enabled sensing for transport, telecoms, energy, or defence. Those themes sit alongside National Quantum Strategy Missions 3, 4, and 5, which set 2030 targets for NHS sensing, aircraft quantum navigation and clocks, and mobile networked sensors on critical infrastructure.
Grant Rates and Consortium Rules
Grant advisory firm Kene Partners lists the competition among open Innovate UK quantum opportunities, with per-project awards of £1 million to £3 million. The competition is open to collaborations only. Academic institutions cannot lead.
| Term | Competition rule |
|---|---|
| Total fund | Up to £14.3 million from UKRI |
| Grant request | £1 million to £3 million |
| Duration | 12 to 24 months |
| Start and end | Start by December 1, 2026; end by November 30, 2028 |
| Lead organisation | UK registered business of any size |
| Required SME | At least one UK registered SME claiming grant |
| Research organisation share | Up to 30% of total eligible project costs |
| Industrial research rates | Up to 70% micro or small, 60% medium, 50% large |
Funded organisations must carry out project work in the UK and intend to exploit results in the UK. UKRI may weight themes unevenly under a portfolio approach, subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. Guidance on the official competition page cites a 30% chance of success from similar competitions. An online briefing was held August 10, 2026.
Bottom Line
Innovate UK is taking collaborative proposals through September 16, 2026 to move quantum sensing and PNT into field use.
Find out more here.
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Further articles, reports, and the latest quantum computing news may be found at The Qubit Report.
D-Wave Quantum Inc. today announced its forthcoming gate-model quantum computing simulator, expected to be the first of its kind designed for error-aware programming. The simulator, built around the company’s dual-rail technology, will enable developers to prototype applications, model quantum processor behavior, and explore advanced workflows as they prepare for access to D-Wave’s forthcoming gate-model quantum systems. Access is scheduled to begin in September 2026 on the company’s Leap cloud platform.
Error-Aware Simulation Architecture and Developer Tooling
The simulator delivers a quantum programming toolkit centered on error-aware capabilities. It supports up to 21 qubits and offers both ideal and hardware emulation modes, enabling simulation of both perfect and realistic processor conditions. Monte Carlo methods allow simulation of real-time quantum system dynamics, providing detailed modeling of how errors arise and propagate during computation.
Integration with D-Wave’s Ocean SDK supports familiar development workflows for prototyping quantum applications and error-correction routines. By combining error detection and real-time control within the simulation environment, the tool gives developers visibility into error profiles so they can design applications and workflows that respond to actual hardware behavior rather than idealized assumptions. This approach allows early exploration of error-resilient programming techniques ahead of physical gate-model system deployment.
Commercial Strategy and Market Positioning
D-Wave is introducing quantum development bundles in Starter and Premium packages to support a range of customer needs, from initial exploration to advanced research and development. The bundles include monthly access allocations to the simulator and forthcoming gate-model systems, along with guidance from D-Wave’s team of experts to streamline onboarding and maximize value from flexible R&D activities. This structure is designed to provide budget predictability and reduce time spent managing usage, allowing organizations to focus resources on algorithm iteration and application progress.
The offering extends D-Wave’s position as the only dual-platform quantum computing company, bridging its established annealing systems and cloud services with the new gate-model roadmap. By making error-aware simulation tools available in advance of hardware, D-Wave aims to accelerate developer expertise and application readiness across commercial, government, and research sectors as the industry moves toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Find out more here.
Further articles, reports, and the latest quantum computing news may be found at The Qubit Report.
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