The United Kingdom and the United States of America have recently signed a new joint statement of intent on cooperation in quantum information sciences and technologies.

The statement, which was signed by George Freeman, UK Minister for Science, and Dr Eric Lander, US Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to the President, aims to advance the shared vision of the two countries and builds upon the UK-US Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, which was signed in 2017.

The new statement lays out joint priorities to:

• promote joint research and development efforts between national quantum programmes;
• grow the global market;
• and provide training opportunities for scientists and engineers.

In an effort to facilitate new research collaborations, the two countries have agreed to enhance partnerships between UK Research & Innovation and the US National Science Foundation.

The countries have also committed to encouraging collaboration between industry within the UK and US. It is expected that, with the aim of developing the quantum industry on a global scale, businesses from the two countries will meet in the coming months to discuss potential collaborations.

It is also the intention for the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to look to advance their partnership by aligning projects and sharing staff and students in areas such as: quantum metrology, computing, clocks and future technical standards.

To read the statement of intent in full, visit the gov.uk website.