TreQ Secures £1.65m for Quantum Testbed

Innovate UK has awarded £1.65 million to TreQ and its consortium, including Rigetti, Oxford Ionics, Q-CTRL, and Qruise, to develop an Open Architecture Quantum (OAQ) testbed. Announced by the UK Secretary of State for science, innovation, and technology as part of a £121 million investment, this grant is integral to the Quantum Missions Pilot aligned with the UK's National Quantum Strategy. This initiative aims to dismantle technological barriers for commercial quantum technologies. The consortium's goal is to establish a platform integrating and assessing quantum software and hardware, thus advancing quantum computing beyond processors. Dr. Joseph Rahamim from TreQ leads this project, spotlighting the collaboration's focus on systems engineering and supply chain development. The versatile system will support multiple configurations by amalgamating various quantum processors, control systems, and software stacks. Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni emphasized the importance of these open architecture systems in quantum development. The testbed will be housed at TreQ's Milton Park facility in Oxfordshire, offering an open specification for low-level quantum workflows. This is TreQ's second UK grant this year, following previous funding from The Science and Technology Facilities Council.