Quantum Technologies

Developing the use of sensors and clocks in innovative, ground-breaking technologies to change the future landscapes of healthcare, transport, defence, civil engineering and more.

Led by the University of Birmingham, the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing develops cold atom science into a range of practical sensors for measuring basic quantities such as gravity, magnetic field, and time. The team is investigating how they can be used to address challenging problems such as seeing underground or imaging brain activity, both of which have significant economic and societal impact.

The development of quantum technology will have an undeniably transformative impact on everyday life, not to mention across huge industry sectors such as transport, civil engineering, communications, computing and even in space. Quantum technology will help to make the world a safer, faster and more productive place to live in.

For more information, visit the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing website. 

Our researchers are focused on:

  • Building optical clocks, which will be able to measure time more accurately than ever before, leading to improved GPS navigation devices and higher-speed broadband services.
  • Developing gravity sensors to help us ‘illuminate the underground’. Hazards such as sinkholes, buried chemical tanks and mineshafts pose a serious risk for people working on-site and after construction has taken place. The consequences can be catastrophic, with buildings opening up, and bridges collapsing and subsiding.
  • Working to transform laboratory-based research into technology, and is developing smaller, cheaper, more accurate and energy-efficient components and systems to develop and sustain a supply chain, which will have a transformative impact across business and society as a whole.

The whole idea of the National Quantum Technologies Programme is not to be purely academic science, but to be engaging with industry to create technology with real economic benefits.

Professor Kai Bongs

Professor Kai Bongs

Principal Investigator at the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing

Discover more

  • UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing

    The Hub’s teams are developing smaller, cheaper, more accurate and energy efficient components and systems to build and sustain a supply chain which will have a potentially transformative impact across business and society as a whole.

  • Quantum technologies at the University of Birmingham

    Professor Kai Bongs and his team at the University of Birmingham-led UK Quantum Technology Sensors and Timing are working with partners across industry and academia to translate laboratory science in to real-world situations to solve the challenges facing society and the environment today.

  • UK National Quantum Technologies Programme

    Overview of the UK government's £270m programme to accelerate the translation of quantum technologies into the marketplace, to boost British business and make a real difference to our everyday lives.

Researchers