The National Physical Laboratory: Driving innovation with new quantum standards

In today’s world, establishing global standards for quantum is paramount. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), alongside several partners, have launched the Quantum Standards Network Pilot, focusing on quantum in industry, new quantum technologies, and skills and training opportunities for the future. Rhys Lewis, head of Quantum Programmes at NPL, discusses aligning quantum advancements with industry standards and collaborations across sectors, leveraging quantum technologies to drive innovation and shape the future landscape.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK works with over 100 experts and several partners to develop the proper standardisation of quantum technologies.

Dr Rhys Lewis, Head of NPL’s Quantum Programmes, is set on aligning quantum advancements with industry standards and collaborations across sectors. Drawing on his diverse experience across industry and academia, discover how Dr Lewis leverages NPL’s expertise to drive innovation, develop standards, and cultivate talent, ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of the quantum revolution.
In this interview, Research Outreach finds out about the new Quantum Standards Network Pilot, improving quantum in the UK, and what the future holds for quantum.

As the Head of NPL’s Quantum Programmes, you play a pivotal role in the development of quantum technologies in the UK. Could you elaborate on your role and how you aim to have an impact on various sectors, including industry and research?

My role is to set the strategic direction for NPL’s work in quantum and to lead the quantum programme delivered by NPL in support of the UK’s national quantum technologies programme (NQTP). Quantum technologies are developments based on controlling nature at the molecular level of atoms, photons, electrons and condensed matter. As a national laboratory with a very strong quantum team, NPL is an important partner in the government-funded NQTP alongside the relevant academic research councils, Innovate UK, the Ministry of Defence, and other government departments.

The NPL quantum programme focuses on support for industry, developing new test and evaluation methods for quantum technologies which can lead to new standards, and the creation of skills and training opportunities to develop a future workforce for the UK. All of these activities build on the strong scientific capabilities of NPL and our team of well over 100 experts in the various themes of the NQTP. The NPL team delivers key elements of projects in partnership with industry, helping companies develop new products and services through collaboration with NPL expertise and facilities. We also work closely with the academic community, in particular the quantum technology hubs, to deliver progress in research and the development of new ideas and early prototypes of new devices.

Your background includes experience in new product development in manufacturing companies. How has your industry experience influenced your approach to quantum research, and what valuable insights from the corporate world have you applied to the realm of quantum technologies?

My experience of leading product development in manufacturing companies gives me an understanding of the challenges of taking research outputs towards a launchable product. Although the NPL programme does include some leading research, our primary mission is to support industry. This can include transferring NPL inventions to UK companies for commercialisation and working closely with the company to train their staff to take on a new invention from prototype to product.

NPL also offers a team of experts and unique facilities to solve problems experienced by companies in their path to innovation and new products. Manufacturing companies can’t have experts in every subject, while a large national laboratory such as NPL has skills and experience across most scientific subject areas of relevance to industry. Our programme, called measurement for quantum, enables NPL to work on small but critical issues forming barriers to innovation. These quick interventions have proved invaluable to a large number of companies, accelerating the process of product development.

The Quantum Technology Programme covers a wide range of applications, from quantum computing to quantum communications. Which areas will be backed by government and private funding, and how do you ensure that this funding is a worthwhile investment?

The main technological themes in the NQTP are likely to be quantum computing, quantum networks, and quantum sensors including quantum systems for position, navigation, and timing. The government will invest, including through its ‘missions’ programmes, into all of these areas, although details of this are yet to be finalised.

Our programme enables NPL to work on critical issues forming barriers to innovation.

Currently the bulk of private investment has been into quantum computing, but the goal is certainly to develop other quantum applications to a point where private investment is generated. Government investment decisions are made in close collaboration with industry representatives, both supply chain and end users, and other government departments including with national laboratories such as NPL.

Can you elaborate on the significance of partnerships and international collaborations in advancing quantum research and innovation, and share some successful examples of NPL’s collaborations in this regard?

The large majority of government funding into the quantum area is in support of partnerships and collaborations between UK organisations. This can be academic collaborations between universities or industry-led consortiums developing new technologies and drawing in relevant partners from industry, academia and government. NPL is involved in a large number of such projects with organisations from all parts of the UK.

NPL is also involved in international collaborations in the quantum area. For example, building on a government-to-government statement of intent to collaborate more closely on quantum with the US, NPL has generated a programme of joint projects with our sister organisation in the US, NIST, the US national measurement institute. This brings teams together to develop new applications for quantum technologies, particularly in the field of metrology and precision measurement. NPL has also led a global collaboration among national measurement institutes to discuss how to work together towards the test and measurement capabilities required to support an emerging quantum industry.

How are you ensuring that these collaborations benefit the UK and that the UK’s IP patents are being protected? Is this something you are concerned about?

We are concerned and very careful that IP is protected in these collaborations so that the UK can benefit from any developments made in the UK. Collaborations are usually covered by a contractual document which defines the IP ownership terms before a project can start.

Other countries have access to much larger funding than the UK. How do you make sure that the UK can be a relevant player and valuable ally in this emerging sector?

Some countries, particularly China and the US, do now have larger quantum programmes than the UK. However, the UK programme was initiated first in the world and remains an exemplar of a joined-up programme, integrating the activities of industry, academia, and government in a way which other national programmes do not do.

This gives the UK an advantage in accelerating the progress towards developing integrational products from the programme.

What are the cybersecurity implications of quantum and how can we make sure sensitive data that uses current encryption technology stays protected?

Common current encryption techniques utilise the idea that it is very easy to multiply together two large numbers and get a much larger number as the product, but it is difficult to start with the large number and find the two original factors. The potential risk is that future quantum computers could crack current encryption methods, which current classical computers are unable to. Quantum communications can transfer a key to encryption from A to B with confidence that it has not been intercepted. This enables the secure transfer of data.

The quantum standards network pilot is the start of a process to inform the UK community about worldwide activity on developing new standards for quantum technologies.

Post quantum cryptography is a programme, led by NIST, to develop cryptographic techniques which are not susceptible to cracking by a quantum computer. “Post quantum” means at a time after an effective quantum computer has been developed. The National Cyber Security Centre have published new guidance to help system and risk owners plan their mitigation to PQC.

Given that quantum computing is an investment on state level, what can medium-sized companies contribute to this? What would their role be compared to big corporations such as IBM?

Many companies are beginning to offer quantum computing as a service. Not all of these companies are large or even medium sized; for example, there are small companies that can offer access to users to a (small) quantum computer. Many companies will develop this capability over the next few years.

‘Quantum’ can be a daunting concept for those outside of the academic community. How do initiatives like this pilot help spread the value of quantum and encourage greater involvement with quantum and related fields?

The quantum standards network pilot led by NPL is the start of a process to inform the UK community about worldwide activity on developing new standards for quantum technologies, and to encourage and facilitate engagement and involvement in that process. It is important that UK industry representatives take part in the process of standards development otherwise UK interests may be excluded from or diminished in future markets.

In your opinion, what is the most exciting application of quantum technology?

I think there is little doubt that the most exciting potential of quantum technologies is in quantum computing, particularly with the prospect of a network of quantum devices able to transfer quantum information between them. The open question is when that future will be reached.

Quantum computing has probably developed more rapidly in the last few years than was expected, but we are still some distance from the fully ‘fault-tolerant’ systems which offer the real paradigm shift in computing capability. There are various scaling issues to overcome to make this leap, many of which are the subject of research and test at NPL.