UK Quantum Technology Hub in Sensing, Imaging and Timing (QuSIT)

Quantum sensing, imaging and timing will deliver transformative advancements across multiple sectors, including healthcare, infrastructure, transportation, environmental sustainability and security.

These technologies make seeing the invisible possible: the inside workings of our brains, the infrastructure buried beneath our feet, the polluting gases in the air around us, the cancers lurking in our tissue or the drones in our crowded skies. These are some of the challenges we are poised to address.

Our Hub in Quantum Sensing Imaging and Timing (QuSIT) brings together academic experts and industry partners, collaborating to translate cutting-edge research into tangible innovations. QuSIT will capitalise on a decade of substantial governmental and industrial investments, consolidating expertise and world-class capability from two established UK Hubs: QuantIC, specialising in quantum-enhanced imaging and the UK Sensing and Timing Hub. QuSIT will be a unified centre of excellence, providing thought leadership within the UK's quantum technology landscape, crucial to the National Quantum Strategy.

At the heart of QuSIT is a world-leading and diverse team of 45 investigators, comprising both emerging talents and seasoned experts. Their impressive academic track record is complemented by a shared commitment to translating innovation from the laboratory to address real-world challenges. Our researchers have a history of licensing technology to industry and launching their own ventures.

The technologies we will exploit are based on both atomic states and entangled photons to create quantum devices that sense and image otherwise invisible optical wavelengths, radio-frequencies, magnetic and gravitational fields, and exploit precision time, including:

Optical wavelength translation using non-linear interferometry and non-linear optics
Atom interferometry for gravity and gravity gradient sensing
Waveguide optics for wavelength conversion
Optically pumped magnetometers for zero and high absolute fields
Metasurfaces for lightweight and compact optics
Wavefront shaping for seeing through obscuration
Data fusion of quantum and classical sensor data, using AI and Bayesian Inference
Quantum enabled frequency sources to enhance radar systems


Our approach revolves around co-creating research with end-users, fostering collaborations between academics and industry players throughout the supply chain, and rigorously testing and refining our innovations through field trials in partnership with our collaborating companies, pursuing new approaches to:

Line-of-sight imaging of polluting, or toxic gases and chemicals
Monitoring of brain health
Screening for concealed and dangerous objects
Imaging of underground infrastructure
Mid-infrared, holographic microscopes for clinical diagnosis
Application of precise timing for the monitoring of congested airspace


The hub is supported by companies and other end-users many of which have made significant investments. These include BT, BAE Systems, Department for Transport, Great Ormond Street Hospital, National Grid, National Physical Laboratory, Ordnance Survey and Severn Trent Water.

In the increasingly competitive international landscape, QuSIT will provide the vision and have the convening power required to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of quantum technology internationally, delivering accelerated economic growth and societal benefits through collaboration between academia and industry.