The UK’s journey toward a quantum-enabled future has taken an important step forward with Jisc becoming a member of UKQuantum. This strategic move establishes a practical foundation for collaboration between academia, industry, and government to help realise the UK’s ambition of building a secure and scalable quantum network by 2035.
At the heart of this ambition sits Janet, the UK’s world-class research and education network, which is uniquely positioned to act as the backbone for early quantum networking capabilities.
UKQuantum Membership
UKQuantum serves as the voice of the UK’s quantum industry, bringing together technology companies, researchers, investors, and policymakers to accelerate the commercialisation of quantum technologies. By joining this community, Jisc strengthens its ability to:
- Align Janet’s infrastructure strategy with national quantum priorities
- Collaborate with cutting-edge quantum vendors and start-ups
- Influence emerging standards and interoperability frameworks
- Bridge the gap between research innovation and real-world deployment
For Jisc, this is a natural extension of its role as a trusted partner to universities, research institutions, and public sector organisations, many of whom are already at the forefront of quantum research.
Janet as a Quantum platform
Janet already underpins the UK’s digital research ecosystem, connecting universities, laboratories, and innovation hubs with high-capacity, low-latency infrastructure. As quantum technologies evolve, this infrastructure becomes a critical asset.
Quantum networking introduces fundamentally new requirements – ultra-low latency, secure key distribution using QKD, precise synchronisation across distributed systems, and integration between classical and quantum communication layers.
Janet’s national reach, combined with its existing optical fibre capabilities and trusted operational model, makes it an ideal platform to host and scale these emerging technologies.
Supporting the UK Government’s Quantum strategy
The UK government has set an ambitious goal: to deploy quantum technologies into practical use cases and establish global leadership by 2035. A central component of this vision is the development of a quantum-secure communications infrastructure.
Jisc’s membership in UKQuantum directly supports this agenda by enabling:
1. Collaboration across sectors
Jisc can convene academic researchers, telecom providers, quantum hardware vendors, and government agencies to co-design network architectures that are both innovative and practical.
2. Testbeds and pilot deployments
Janet provides a ready-made environment for deploying and testing quantum networking technologies at scale. Early pilots can evolve into production-grade services.
3. Standards and interoperability
A future quantum network will require seamless integration across multiple technologies and vendors. Jisc will help shape standards that ensure interoperability between classical and quantum systems.
4. Skills and capability building
By connecting universities and industry partners, Jisc can support the development of quantum skills across the UK workforce.
Working with industry to accelerate innovation
The UK’s quantum ecosystem is vibrant, but is somewhat fragmented. UKQuantum provides the mechanism to bring stakeholders together, and Jisc’s participation ensures that networking remains a core consideration.
Key opportunities for Jisc include:
- Partnering with telecom providers to integrate quantum-safe encryption into existing infrastructure
- Working with quantum hardware companies to deploy QKD and quantum repeaters across Janet
- Supporting start-ups by providing access to a national-scale network for testing and validation
- Collaborating with cloud and data centre providers to explore hybrid quantum-classical architectures
By acting as a neutral, trusted broker, Jisc can help de-risk innovation and accelerate adoption.
The road to a UK Quantum network by 2035
Core to the Governments Quantum strategy is Mission 2 (see below): By 2035, the UK will have deployed the world’s most advanced quantum network at scale, pioneering the future quantum internet.
This is an ambitions and complex objective that will require phased development, beginning with targeted pilots and evolving into a fully integrated infrastructure. That pathway could include:
- Near-term (2025–2028):
- Pilot QKD deployments between key research centres
- Integration of quantum-safe encryption into Janet services
- Development of early standards and operational models
- Mid-term (2028–2032):
- Expansion of quantum networking across regional clusters
- Interconnection with international quantum initiatives
- Introduction of quantum-enabled services for research and government
- Long-term (2032–2035):
- Nationwide quantum-secure communications network
- Fully integrated quantum-classical infrastructure
- Commercialisation and broad adoption across sectors
Jisc’s involvement in UKQuantum ensures that Janet is central to this journey.
A strategic moment for the UK
The convergence of policy ambition, academic excellence, and industrial innovation creates a unique opportunity for the UK to lead in quantum networking. Jisc’s decision to join UKQuantum reflects a clear recognition of this moment, and an ambition to be at the forefront.
By aligning Janet with the UK’s quantum strategy and fostering deep collaboration across sectors, Jisc is helping to lay the groundwork for a secure, resilient, and future-ready national network.
Conclusion
Jisc’s membership of UKQuantum is a strategic step that strengthens its role at the intersection of research, infrastructure, and innovation. It positions Janet as a foundational platform for the UK’s quantum future, supporting collaboration with government and industry while accelerating progress toward a national quantum network by 2035.
As quantum technologies move from theory to reality, the partnerships formed today will define the networks of tomorrow. With Jisc at the table, the UK is better equipped to turn ambition into delivery.
Mission 2 of the UK Government’s National Quantum Strategy, in full:
Mission 2: by 2035, the UK will have deployed the world’s most advanced quantum network at scale, pioneering the future quantum internet.
To deliver on the broad opportunities that are presented by quantum technologies, they will need to become firmly integrated within our digital infrastructure, including priority Future Telecoms platforms such as satellite communications. This will transform the way we secure, transmit and compute our data. The mission will focus on achieving the following outcomes:
- Scale computing: A quantum network in 2035 will see clusters of quantum processors networked together within and between data centres to scale computing power, turbocharging our ability to unlock high impact applications. This outcome will be integrated with Mission 1.
- Nationwide connectivity: We will be able to connect researchers and users in major cities and locations across the whole of the UK, enabling them to share information in a quantum state to facilitate secure, trustworthy, and remote access to capabilities and data.
- Early commercialisation: This mission will support further testing, demonstration, and evaluation of near-term commercial opportunities in quantum communications and component technologies. This will build the supply chain and operational learnings, providing the stepping-stone needed for future networks.
- International: The opportunities are global and the UK will work with at least five other countries to collaborate on developing underpinning technologies and connectivity with international quantum networks, including through satellite links. The UK will also take a leadership role in developing quantum networking standards.
- Future Quantum Internet: At the end of the mission, the UK will have the capability to send quantum information from the local to the global scale and to exploit this for the benefit of our economy and society. This will be year 0 for what will become known as the quantum internet.
Source: www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-quantum-strategy/national-quantum-strategy-missions