10077426AQlockClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKAquark Technologies is a cutting-edge start-up in quantum technologies that will radically enhance our ability to sense, measure and compute on a mass-market scale. We have created a game-changing system to capture, manipulate, and exploit the quantum characteristics of atoms by way of a low-cost, low-power module based on ultra-cold atoms. Using cold atoms as a basis for position, navigation and timing enables both a step change in performance and autonomy when compared with existing state of the art. However, the required components of cold-atom traps to-date have rendered them too complex, large and power-intensive for meaningful real-world use, and therefore limited in their application. Aquark has successfully overcome this major limitation by miniaturising our cold-atom engine. This miniaturisation offers us the opportunity to be first-to-market with portable, scalable quantum devices for use across sectors. Ultimately, we aim to enable mass-scale implementation of highly precise sensors and clocks, GPS-independent inertial navigation, and quantum computing, delivering against UK government priorities and urgent international need for non-GNSS alternatives as well as augmenting existing systems for increase in performance and reliability. Our first product and vital demonstrator for our cold-atom engine is a quantum clock, the AQlock, which will enable us to commercialise and expand rapidly into new verticals. During a previous Innovate UK-funded project, we successfully proved feasibility of this technology, including technical demonstration of an open-loop clock signal. This project now aims to transition the AQlock to commercial readiness, including extensive lab and live-environment testing. As part of the project, we will confirm and stress-test two supply chains (bespoke UK-based and commercial off-the-shelf, including international suppliers) to finalise a single, robust supply chain that can successfully scale manufacture of the AQlock ready for wide deployment. At all stages we will prioritise UK manufacturers and suppliers, falling back on international alternatives only when we are unable to secure necessary resources or expertise within the UK due complexity of the cold-atom engine and the AQlock. The AQlock is designed to integrate into existing systems as an accompaniment or augmentation to GNSS-enabled technology. Initial target sectors include telecoms, defence, finance and aviation, with committed end-users informing the scope of technical development. Delivery of the AQlock will open up quantum-enabled systems for global PNT, and simultaneously establish an underpinning UK-prioritised supply chain for quantum sensing vectors, providing the opportunity for wholesale transition away from GNSS dependency and replacing vulnerable systems with UK-grown quantum technology