The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded £1.65 million to 17 projects exploring how quantum health technology could improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease.
The investment will connect leading quantum researchers with clinical expertise and NIHR infrastructure, helping promising technologies progress towards further development and potential use across the NHS.
Accelerating quantum innovation into healthcare
The projects have been funded through the NIHR’s Invention for Innovation Funding At the Speed of Translation opportunity, known as i4i FAST.
The programme seeks to close the gap between early scientific discovery and practical healthcare applications by supporting researchers to test whether emerging technologies can meet genuine clinical needs.
It also involves the Q-Biomed and QuSIT quantum research hubs for healthcare, which are co-funded by the NIHR, alongside other parts of the research infrastructure working on quantum technologies.
Professor Mike Lewis, NIHR Scientific Director for Innovation, described the investment as a major step towards bringing quantum technology to patients and strengthening the UK’s position in quantum health innovation.
He said:
“By investing in these 17 projects, we are fast-tracking tools that can diagnose illness earlier and provide life-changing breakthroughs. These innovations will transform our health system and improve the lives of patients.”
Chief Executive of UKAI, Tim Flagg said “We welcome this ambitious £1.65 million investment as a clear signal that the UK is positioning itself as a genuine leader in quantum health innovation. Backing 17 projects at this early stage shows real commitment to enabling the next generation of AI-driven and quantum-enabled diagnostics, from cancer imaging to home monitoring.”
He continued: “What matters now is turning that ambition into services patients actually receive, ensuring these breakthroughs move beyond the lab and into NHS pathways where they can genuinely transform lives.”
From breast cancer imaging to intensive care
The 17 projects span a broad range of clinical and technological applications.
Researchers at Imperial College London are examining how imaging using “undetected photons” could support treatment decisions for people with breast cancer. The technology is intended to create faster, lower-noise images, potentially helping clinicians identify patients who may not require chemotherapy.
At Heriot-Watt University, researchers are developing a compact device that could allow people with macular disease to monitor their eyes at home. This could reduce the need for regular hospital appointments while helping services identify changes before significant sight loss occurs.
University College London researchers are also developing a hybrid quantum and classical decision-support system for intensive care units. The project will examine whether the technology can interpret complex patient data and predict critical events, including cardiac arrest, more quickly and accurately.
Other funded projects will investigate quantum sensing for early Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis treatment selection, chronic liver disease, anaesthesia monitoring, point-of-care diagnostics and photodynamic cancer treatment.
Moving care closer to patients
A central theme of the programme is the potential to identify illness earlier and move more services away from acute hospitals and into homes and communities.
Earlier detection could prevent conditions from developing into more complex and costly long-term health problems. Home monitoring could also reduce unnecessary hospital visits while allowing patients and clinicians to identify deterioration sooner.
These aims support the Government’s wider ambition to move the NHS from analogue systems towards more digitally enabled and preventative models of care.
Health and Social Care Minister, Baroness Gillian Merron said quantum technology could help patients receive faster and better care while supporting the development of an NHS equipped for future challenges.
She said:
“Through this £1.65 million investment, we’re backing some of the UK’s brightest researchers to turn cutting-edge science into practical innovations that could help detect cancer earlier, support people to monitor long-term conditions from home, and give clinicians better tools to make life-saving decisions.”
Strengthening the UK’s quantum health sector
The Government has set an ambition for the UK to become the first country to deploy quantum computers at scale by the early 2030s, with the technology potentially contributing £200 billion to the economy by 2045.
Quantum technologies could offer greater precision and processing power in areas such as imaging, diagnostics, sensing and the analysis of complex health data.
However, many potential applications remain at an early stage. The NIHR funding is therefore intended to establish whether the technologies can work in clinical environments and deliver benefits that justify further investment.
By supporting the projects during their initial development, the programme could help create a pipeline of clinically relevant innovations capable of attracting further public and private funding.
It could also create new commercial opportunities for British researchers and technology companies while improving NHS productivity and patient care.
Welcoming the announcement, Chief Executive of UK Healthcare and Life Sciences Innovation, Jo Bekis said: “This £1.65 million investment marks an exciting step forward for the future of patient care. The potential for quantum technologies to enable earlier diagnosis, smarter clinical decision-making and more accessible care is truly transformative.
“It is encouraging to see such strong support for innovations that could not only improve patient outcomes but also help build a more resilient, preventative and technology-enabled NHS for generations to come.”
The 17 funded projects
Curia, UKAI, and UK Healthcare and Life Sciences Innovation (UKHLSI) members can download the list of projects using this link. A password has been emailed to members:
Final thought
The investment is modest when divided across 17 projects, but its significance lies in building the evidence needed to move quantum health technologies beyond laboratories and into clinical settings.
The next challenge will be ensuring that the strongest projects can access follow-on funding, demonstrate measurable benefits, and integrate into existing NHS pathways and clinical workflows. Scientific potential alone will not secure adoption: technologies will also need to be affordable, usable by frontline teams and capable of addressing clear service pressures.
If these conditions are met, quantum health could support earlier diagnosis, more personalised treatment and a gradual shift from hospital-based intervention towards prevention and care closer to home.
Get involved
To find out more about Curia’s work as a policy institute, or to find out more about UKAI‘s work in quantum, please contact Partnerships Director, Ben McDermott at ben.mcdermott@chamberuk.com