Contracts for Innovation: ProQure - Scaling UK Quantum Computing in Lancashire

ProQure is UK Government's dedicated programme to identify, grow and deploy world leading quantum computing capabilities to drive economic growth and social impact in the UK.

This competition is the first phase of a wider, multi‑phase programme to support the development of UK quantum computing. The programme’s early phases will help inform a future public procurement of large scale quantum computers beyond 2030, with an available budget of up to £1 billion.

This competition is a standalone Contracts for Innovation competition. It does not involve the purchase of any solution, and taking part in this phase does not give any organisation automatic eligibility in any future procurement exercise.

In this competition, organisations can apply for up to £14 million, inclusive of VAT to develop, build and validate integrated hardware and software solutions.

Successful applicants from phase 1, who have passed the technical and commercial assessment throughout the project, will be invited to apply to take part in phase 2. The phase 2 contract will be up to £75 million inclusive of VAT.

The key aims of this phase 1 competition are to:

In applying to this competition you are entering into a competitive process. It may be the case that your project scores highly and receives positive comments from the assessors but we are still unable to fund it due to the portfolio approach.

Any adoption and implementation of a solution from this competition would be subject to a separate, possibly competitive, procurement exercise.

We expect to receive a high volume of applications and will not be able to fund them all. We expect to award up to 10 contracts.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government, or third-party sites will always show the correct competition information.