TreQ, Qruise, Q-CTRL, Oxford Ionics, and Rigetti are collaborating to create an open-architecture quantum computing testbed. This project unites industry leaders to develop a modular, extensible system for integrating and evaluating quantum components and processors across the supply chain, serving the global market from the UK. A key innovation of this project is its flexible design, offering 8 unique configurations by combining two quantum processors, two control systems, and two quantum software stacks. This capital-efficient approach maximises value by enabling extensibility and upgrades, ensuring this taxpayer investment supports long-term advancements in a rapidly evolving field. The testbed also strengthens the quantum supply chain by enabling collaboration among specialised component providers, especially those in the UK ecosystem. Just as classical computing evolved from fully vertically integrated systems to ecosystems of specialised suppliers, this project fosters a similar shift in the quantum computing landscape. TreQ, as a high-level manufacturer and quantum systems engineering company, is at the forefront of this evolution, driving innovation and creating skilled jobs in the UK. In addition to advancing hardware, the project will deliver an open specification for quantum workflows, creating a common interface between quantum software and hardware. This will enhance collaboration across the industry and accelerate the development of cost-effective solutions to address global challenges in finance, energy, and healthcare. This initiative represents a critical step toward realizing the full potential of quantum computing, fostering innovation, and strengthening the UK's leadership in quantum technologies.

**"Quantum Testbed Advancements through 2D Trapping Architectures" (Q-TATA)** solves a barrier to scaling quantum computers: the qubit routing challenge. Existing Quantum Computers (QCs) become slower and more prone to errors as they scale due to limited ability to efficiently move information around the processors. Solving this challenge is a key enabler for the UK's 2035 Quantum Mission, which aims to develop accessible quantum computers capable of executing 1 trillion operations---outperforming classical supercomputers in key economic sectors. To unlock the commercial impact of quantum computing, today's small-scale devices must be scaled into powerful quantum supercomputers capable of running algorithms efficiently. Achieving this with the speed and performance required for commercial applications will require significant improvements in the ability of existing processors to move information around the chip, a process known as qubit routing. Qubit routing is thus a key bottleneck in scaling QCs. **Q-TATA addresses this challenge** by enabling highly efficient routing in ion-trap systems with proven world-record gate fidelity. Trapped ions are the most powerful QCs, measured by Quantum Volume. However, all existing trapped-ion QCs utilise 1D chip designs with limited ability to route qubits around the chip, with runtimes and errors increasing quadratically with the qubit count. Extending this layout to 2D significantly reduces runtime by up to 6 orders of magnitude in 10,000-qubit systems. Proof-of-concept work by Oxford Ionics has validated this approach, but scalable commercial deployment demands innovation in trap design and packaging, followed by innovation in Quantum Error Correction (QEC) to utilise the 2D designs. **To realise this ambitious project**, we bring together a unique consortium capable of advanced chip designs, the fabrication and packaging techniques for manufacturing them, and QEC. * OI has world-leading in-house expertise in ion trap design, routing, and high-fidelity gates (demonstrated single-qubit 99.99916% and two-qubit 99.97%) * Bay Photonics pioneers advanced packaging solutions for quantum technologies, providing existing and novel techniques required to realise the electrical, photonic and electrostatically shielded packaging of high-density quantum devices. * Riverlane develops cutting-edge tools for QEC that support hardware companies in architectural design choices for efficient QEC. The technology will be optimised for fault-tolerant operation required to achieve the Quantum Missions goal.

The theoretical modeling and computational simulations of molecular systems is essential to understanding the mechanisms behind a number of chemical and/or biological processes, for example, the way in which our eyes react to light. Classical simulations of such quantum systems require many approximations of the system behavior and therefore have limited accuracy. The development of quantum chemistry algorithms for quantum computers to describe molecular systems can overcome hampering bottlenecks in system size, simulation time, and accuracy. This will pave the way for much-needed theoretical support to the development of, e.g., new drugs and energy materials. However, development of quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry problems is facing a great challenge. At large scales, the performance of these quantum algorithms cannot be investigated using simulations on classical computers. Additionally, execution of quantum algorithms on quantum hardware suffers from the acute problem of noise and errors on these devices. Error mitigation (EM) methods are geared to significantly reduce errors without requiring any overhead in the qubit count, yet they require significant QPU runtime. Thus, it is essential that they are tailored to the specific hardware and use-cases. Researchers developing quantum chemistry algorithms do not have dedicated tools for executing their algorithms on low-noise quantum hardware with EM. This slows down the progress of research and requires the research teams to hire talents to develop in-house methods, which do not require a quantum computer to bridge this gap instead of focusing their resources on the development of quantum chemistry algorithms. The consortium hereby proposes Q-CHEMION, a full-stack quantum solution that will allow researchers to test and benchmark quantum algorithms, eventually going far beyond the scales which can be simulated by classical supercomputers. The stack will include: 1. Use cases: Prototypes of real-world use cases within life and materials science, for example, processes in light-sensitive retinal proteins, like rhodopsin, which constitutes the first few steps in vision. 2. EM middleware: Qedma's Quantum Error Suppression and Error Mitigation (QESEM) product will be tailored and optimized for quantum chemistry algorithms on OI's cutting-edge hardware. 3. Hardware: Oxford Ionics' trapped ion-based quantum systems are driven by their unique electronic qubit control system. They have achieved record-setting qubit control fidelities while maintaining the scalability of their architecture systems. Algorithms presented by DTU, UCPH, and MQS will be run on OI hardware using algorithm-agnostic Q-CHEMION.

Quantum computing has the potential to transform industries from finance to pharmaceuticals by allowing us to solve problems which are intractable using classical supercomputers. While no quantum computer today can outperform classical supercomputers on real-world applications, a milestone known as Practical Quantum Advantage (PQA), there is significant interest in using them to learn about Quantum Computing ahead of PQA. This makes it critically important to have access to hardware testbeds: stable and well-characterised development platforms which can be used to study quantum computing and learn about hardware performance and bottlenecks. Currently available quantum computers are not well-suited to this application for two reasons: they are **closed boxes** based on **non-scalable technologies. The QUantum Advantage-Ready Trapped-Ion Exploration Testbed ("QUARTET")** addresses both of these limitations to provide a well-characterised, deployable prototype universal quantum computer offering state-of-the-art performance level that is both open-box and scalable to PQA through low-cost field upgrades of the quantum processing unit (QPU) only. QUARTE is a complete trapped-ion quantum computing testbed. It provides ultra-low error rates (two qubit gates with \>99.9% fidelity, single-qubit gates with \>99.99%), full (any-any connectivity) and universal computation. It includes all hardware and software required to operate it. It is an open-box, with a software interface that supports both running quantum circuits using the industry-standard OpenQASM format, as well as a pulse-level control API for in-depth studying of hardware performance and bottlenecks. A key feature of the testbed is its support of field-replaceable Quantum Processing Units (QPUs), using a robust interface with industry-standard electrical and optical connectors. The QUARTET testbed already supports all optical and electrical connectors needed to fully operate QPUs with 256 useful qubits capable of reaching PQA. Low cost field upgrades ensure that the testbed has a long lifetime, with continuous upgrades all the way to practical quantum advantage. The testbed builds on 3 generations of quantum testbeds that have already been produced at OI, providing proven performance and reliability with world-leading error rates. Working closely on QUARTET with its lead customer, the National Quantum Computing Centre ("NQCC"), Oxford Ionics will deliver and demonstrate a commercial prototype quantum computing testbed, to be deployed at the NQCC. Based on our discussions regarding the needs of the NQCC, it was emphasised that there is a need for a scalable quantum testbed that can be characterised, experimented with, and benchmarked in real-world applications. We believe QUARTET is perfectly in line with these end-user needs.

To unlock the commercial impact of Quantum Computing (QC), today's small-scale quantum computers must be scaled into powerful quantum supercomputers. There are two approaches achieving this: **scaling up** by increasing the number of qubits on a single chip and **scaling out** by networking multiple smaller chips together. While scaling up is highly effective for small systems, it becomes increasingly challenging as the number of qubits grows. Scaling out uses a quantum network to entangle qubits in different chips. Trapped ions hold the world-records for Quantum Networks. However, while these state-of-the-art systems achieve excellent performance, they are not practical to deploy in a commercial setting due to the techniques used to deliver the required electrical and optical signals. The Network EXTensible Quantum Processing Unit (NextQPU) project seeks to address this challenge by developing a deployable prototype networkable quantum processing unit. This builds on Oxford Ionics' existing QPU platform by integrating the capability to collect photons entangled to the qubit states directly into microfabricated ion trap chips. Working closely on NextQPU with its customer, the National Quantum Computing Centre ("NQCC"), Oxford Ionics will deliver and demonstrate a commercial prototype networkable QPU, to be tested at the NQCC. NQCC deputy director, Simon Plant said, "_NextQPU is a key step in building a commercial ecosystem out of the UK's world-leading quantum networking academic research. Oxford Ionics is in a strong position to lead this exciting work thanks to their demonstrated expertise in quantum networking and advanced quantum computing technologies._"

Project SiNQ will investigate the hardware requirements for quantum computing technologies to meet challenging applications in drug design and material development. Quantum Computing will revolutionise these applications and Oxford Ionics is looking to develop novel quantum computers based on high-performance trapped-ion technology. The challenge is to develop new technologies which will enable these high-performance systems to be developed and commercialised. Photonic Integrated Circuits represent an exciting new technology able to underpin the quantum computing hardware needs for these applications. This project will look to develop an R&D supply chain for innovative PICs for Quantum Computing. The project will develop new designs, fabricate novel PICs and develop testbeds to industrial test standards. The project partners will work to develop a roadmap for the future development of this exciting technology which can underpin the accelerated commercialisation of Quantum Computing products. A benchmarking exercise will be performed as to the hardware developments and steps required to enable trapped ion technology to be exploited using this novel technology.

Quantum computers are expected to be able to solve hard computational challenges that are beyond the reach of our best standard supercomputers. After many years of research in both academia and industry, quantum computers are at the point of outperforming their standard ("classical") counterparts in certain specialised problems. One of the most exciting and plausible applications for near-term quantum computers is modelling quantum-mechanical systems. Understanding such systems is essential for many practical applications, ranging from the design of more efficient catalysts and solar panels to the development of novel drugs. However, exact modelling of a quantum system using a classical computer rapidly becomes infeasible as the system size increases. Quantum computers could overcome this limit and enable us to model currently inaccessible physical systems. Although there have been many years of theoretical work on quantum algorithms for this modelling task, standard algorithms for these applications require quantum hardware that is still decades away. Quantum software startup Phasecraft's goal is to maximise the potential of near-term quantum technologies for real world application. To achieve this, it has adopted a new approach to quantum algorithm development that has led to results so significant as to bring applications of quantum computing to materials modelling into the near-term quantum computing realm. These breakthroughs are already integrated into a quantum software demonstrator. The focus of this feasibility study is to make the next advance in quantum simulation algorithms, beyond even these ground-breaking recent results. This next step requires tight integration between quantum algorithm design, quantum hardware design and the specific applications in catalyst modelling. As well as their significant industrial importance, catalysts also represent the next challenge for quantum computation beyond crystalline materials, as it requires simulation of both structured crystalline materials and less structure molecules. The goal of the project is show how quantum simulation of this type of system can be made feasible on near-term quantum hardware, run proof-of-principle demonstrations on Oxford Ionics' ion trap quantum hardware and QuERA's cold atom hardware (accessed through AWS), and integrate the new algorithms into Phasecraft's quantum software. Our consortium includes world-renowned experts in quantum software and algorithms (Phasecraft), catalyst research (UCL), ion trap quantum hardware (Oxford Ionics), and commercial materials development (Johnson Matthey). Only this combination of expertise will be able to deliver on this ambitious goal.

TransmissION takes an innovative approach to meeting the critical need for integrated photonics required to scale up trapped-ion quantum computing. It is led by Oxford Ionics, experts in high performance quantum computing, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics who have expertise in the development of photonic systems. Quantum computing, an area of heated and ongoing global competition, will revolutionise industries ranging from drug discovery to finance with market values in the hundreds of billions. As one of the favourable universal quantum computing platforms, trapped-ion quantum computing also needs to overcome the barriers to scaling before fully tapping into these huge markets. Current state-of-the-art systems are built with bulk-optics, which are not scalable, not to mention difficult to align and unstable. Therefore, a truly scalable integrated photonic chip is needed to replace the current bulky optics used in trapped ion quantum computing. TransnissION will study the feasibility of this new type of photonic chip aimed at addressing all of the requirements for integration and scalability in trapped-ion systems. As a project that has the potential to drastically advance the current state-of-the-art in trapped-ion quantum computing and beyond, TramsmissION is in the scope of the call and also well aligns with the heart of UK's national effort in quantum computing.

The Altnaharra project brings together leading researchers in superconducting, ion trap and spin qubits along with a world-leading cryogenic equipment supplier and world-leading centre for measurement standards to develop a cryogenic chip for integrated qubit control and readout, manufactured in a standard CMOS foundry. The development of such a chip is a fundamental enabler for the whole quantum computing community and a requirement for creating a quantum processor not limited by IO wires and therefore able to scale sufficiently to solve meaningful problems.

Quantum computers are a new type of powerful computer. They are based on building blocks called qubits. For quantum computers to work, we need to be able to control qubits in a predictable way. Controlling just one or two qubits is often the culmination of several years' work in a laboratory and can only be performed by highly trained researchers. Qubits are extremely fragile and require constant delicate attention, like the continuous tweaks of a circus performer keeping a plate spinning. With each new plate, the amount of computing power to keep them spinning increases. Eventually, with so many plates in the air at the same time, existing control methods quickly become overwhelmed. For quantum computing to become commercially useful, we need to be able to control hundreds or even thousands of qubits at the same time. This is the biggest bottleneck in quantum computing. We will solve this challenge by building a system that can control hundreds of qubits and that can be used across different types of quantum computers. We will also use a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning to automate the tuning of qubits and maximise the time they are 'spinning in the air'. This project brings together the UK's leading quantum software company (Riverlane), quantum hardware companies (SeeQC UK, Oxford Ionics) and research organisations (NPL, University of Oxford). They develop different types of qubits that we can test our control system on. Mind Foundry, a University of Oxford spin-out, will develop the artificial intelligence framework that can automatically keep the qubits "spinning". The University of Edinburgh will detect the state of the quantum computer and guarantee optimum performance after intervention. We will work together to combine quantum software and artificial intelligence to build a control system for quantum computers that is powerful and intelligent. Our project brings together UK-based academic and industrial organisations to strengthen the UK quantum industry and help produce quantum computers that will transform the way several industries, such as finance, drug discovery and materials development, work.

Quantum information processing (QIP) will revolutionise many industries with applications ranging from drug discovery to supply chain management. However, QIP faces a technological challenge in scalability. To secure quantum advantage and a fault-tolerant general purpose quantum computer many high-fidelity qubits and sources must be controlled. UpScale brings together four commercial partners and two research organisations to address this challenge. By using a scalable integrated photonic routing and addressing platform, different QIP architectures of trapped-ions and semiconductor photon sources will be supported. The integrated photonic platform leverages decades of development in telecommunications systems and semiconductor manufacturing and is compatible with cryogenic temperature operation and multiple independent qubit systems. UpScale will develop and deploy two major and innovative integrated photonic technologies: a silicon nitride (SiN) photonic integrated chip platform and cryogenic-compatible photonic coupling and packaging. The focus of UpScale is delivery of high-TRL scalable demonstrators rather than fundamental research. It will build on several recently published results and use photonic foundry services to provide a reliable supply chain and solve technical challenges associated with scalability at the pace required for commercialisation. The project is designed to maximise return on investment by developing technological solutions for scaling of QIP systems, for the benefit of multiple commercial partners. Additional routes to market include the commercialisation of photonic systems and cryogenic packaging services.

The UK has world leading capability in scalable, high fidelity qubit generation for quantum computing, with two particularly compelling approaches being neutral atoms and ion microtraps. These technologies, however, remain at low TRL because a viable commercialisation approach requires the provision of test beds available to the UK community, and test beds are unavailable owing to two technology barriers -- qubit scalability and fidelity. Providing these test beds requires inter-disciplinary expertise beyond any one company. Our vision for this project is to bring together a such world-leading multidisciplinary consortium of UK industry and academic partners -- the only group capable of overcoming the two barriers and creating a globally leading industry for commercial quantum computing and simulation hardware. The programme will show a transition from fundamental, academic TRL activity to scalable, commercial deployments of cold matter quantum information systems; overcoming the fidelity and scalability barriers via advancement of system manufacturability including microfabrication and vacuum hardware; development of the photonics backbone including advanced lasers for state preparation, qubit control and readout, requiring high levels of optical power, stability and noise suppression; and the design and delivery of electronics and control systems, including modular electronics and advanced control and sequencing hardware. The key objectives in overcoming the barriers as described above is to bring the technology to a level where pragmatic test bed facilities for the benefit of the quantum community can be realised. Commercially, by establishing the potential scalability of the technology the consortium will establish a supply chain cluster, evidencing the potential impact, and producing a roadmap to industrial production. The partners have extensive experience in the sector and can already demonstrate commercial deployment of relevant technologies across the global market for quantum information systems. Furthermore, the planned work can be expected to dovetail with existing national quantum computing infrastructure, to realise coordinated growth of the UK quantum computing sector for the wider benefit of UK plc, and trigger significant additional investment outside the project funding.

Without an operating system, computers would be much less useful. Before the invention of operating systems, computers could only run one calculation at a time. All tasks had to be scheduled by hand. Operating systems automate the scheduling of tasks and make sure that resources such as memory and disk space are allocated properly. Because operating systems simplify computers, everyone can handle them and benefit from them. Quantum computers are a new type of powerful computer. Big and high-quality quantum computers can outperform conventional computers at specific tasks, such as predicting the properties of a drug. Currently, it is difficult for users to interact with quantum computers because there is no good operating system. The systems that exist don't schedule tasks optimally and cannot perform calculations quickly. Building this operating system is difficult -- many have tried and no solutions have worked. We have invented an operating system to overcome this technical challenge: NISQ.OS. While competitors present quantum computers as a "black box", NISQ.OS exposes all its different elements. Many of them look far more familiar than you might think. Quantum computers consist of a quantum processing unit, which contains the qubits, a couple of layers of special-purpose chips that control the qubits, and a conventional computer for overall control. By providing access to all these layers of the "quantum computing stack", we give the user the power to schedule tasks in an optimal way. This will improve the performance of quantum computers by a 1,000-fold compared to other leading approaches. Once we integrate hardware and software tightly, we expect that the performance will improve by 1,000,000-fold. We have assembled a group of experts from across the UK to build the operating system. This includes the UK's leading quantum hardware companies, Hitachi, Oxford Quantum Circuits, SeeQC, Duality Quantum Photonics, Oxford Ionics, and Universal Quantum; Riverlane, a quantum software company; Arm, a UK-based chip manufacturer; and the National Physical Laboratory. The National Physical Laboratory plays an important role because their expertise lies in developing technical standards for breakthrough technology. To build our operating system, we need to define a new standard interface between software and hardware that everyone can use. Our project will attract many important customers, such as pharmaceutical or chemical companies, as well as the financial industry. Because our operating system is so much better, they will want to run their applications on UK-based quantum computers.