The Signal
NQCC Completes Deployment of Seven Quantum Testbeds
The NQCC’s £30 million testbed programme completed its first phase with seven quantum systems delivered by the end of 2025. The centre and the University of Edinburgh’s Quantum Software Lab are now evaluating the systems across five hardwar
Quantum.world Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
550 meetings helped deliver seven systems
More than 550 coordination meetings went into completing the National Quantum Computing Centre’s seven-system testbed programme, according to its Phase 1 report. The £30 million initiative, run with Innovate UK, delivered seven prototype quantum computers by the end of 2025, creating a UK site for testing and evaluating different hardware approaches.
The report counts more than 120 specialist contractors among those involved in delivery. It describes the first phase as a build-and-deployment effort, with the next phase focused on performance evaluation and use. The NQCC and the University of Edinburgh’s Quantum Software Lab are working together on that assessment.
Six systems sit in NQCC facilities; QuEra built nearby
The seven providers are Aegiq, Infleqtion UK, Quantum Motion, QuEra UK, ORCA Computing, Oxford Ionics and Rigetti UK. Their systems span five approaches: photonics, neutral atoms, silicon spin qubits, trapped ions and superconducting circuits. Six providers placed their systems in facilities operated by the NQCC at Harwell, Oxfordshire.
QuEra took a different route, investing in its own Harwell facility. The company split its work between delivering a demonstrator in Boston, Massachusetts, and developing a more advanced testbed at Harwell. The distinction matters: all seven contracts were completed, but not all seven machines were installed inside NQCC-operated facilities.
“The delivery of the seven testbeds represents a significant milestone for quantum computing in the UK, which has been enabled through considerable effort of the project teams alongside dedicated project oversight and facilities provision by the NQCC,” Dr Michael Cuthbert, Director, NQCC, writes in the report.
Delivery finished; performance evaluation continues
The programme set three measures of success: include at least three distinct hardware approaches, have two-thirds of the systems meet target performance criteria by March 31, 2025, and retain more than half for Phase 2 evaluation. The report says the first and third targets were exceeded; the delivery deadline was only partially met. Some contracts were extended, though all seven were completed during 2025.
Six systems have been accepted for the technical evaluation phase, while one remains in pre-evaluation status. The NQCC and its Edinburgh partners plan to benchmark and verify performance using an independent framework, examine noise and error handling, and explore how each architecture performs on application-development tasks. The report says the main Phase 2 work is due to finish in the second quarter of 2027.
Evaluation, not deployment, is the next test
The NQCC says the systems will give researchers, industry developers and public-sector stakeholders development platforms for hands-on experimentation. The report also records £4.6 million in follow-on funding for collaborative projects, while cautioning that it is too early to assess the programme’s full impact.
The next evidence will come from the evaluation itself: how the systems perform under common tests, where differences between hardware approaches matter, and which platforms prove usable for application exploration. The NQCC’s report leaves those comparisons to Phase 2.