Quantum sensing steps into the spotlight as innovation and insecurity reshape the world

by Karina Robinson FCSI(Hon)

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Cinderella cooks, cleans and sleeps in a corner of the kitchen until the day she emerges into the spotlight and her fortunes change.

Quantum sensing – an advanced measurement technology that achieves a level of precision that classical sensors cannot – shares a similar story. While quantum computers attract public and government attention despite not being capable of carrying out a useful operation at scale, quantum sensors, labouring away in relative obscurity, are seeing their technological development gather pace.

Quantum sensors are being used across multiple industries, including healthcare – MRI machines use them. The race is on to decrease their size and cost to make them widely available for commercial use. Two examples serve to illustrate their usefulness.

Over 12 months ago, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane lost satellite signals while trying to land in Bulgaria. Russia was suspected but denied any involvement. The jamming of GPS navigation signals by an enemy has become more common anywhere near conflict zones.

As an alternative to GPS, quantum navigation uses quantum sensors to map the Earth’s magnetic field and pinpoint location. Airbus is among many aerospace companies currently testing the technology, which it says is “impermeable to GPS jamming or spoofing”.

Another example is in the energy sector. Delta.g, a UK-based quantum sensor company, manufactures quantum gravity sensors that provide subsurface information before ground is broken. This allows for the earlier detection of pipeline leaks, monitoring of carbon emissions and exploration of potential wells, a compelling advance in efficiency and productivity with environmental benefits.

According to Delta.g’s CEO Tony Lowe, these sensors could be produced commercially by the end of 2027. They would go from being the size of a large fridge to ultimately being the size of a Coke can.

The company recently announced an upcoming partnership with French energy giant TotalEnergies to advance subsurface intelligence. Lowe said: “The company mission is to be the Google Maps of the subsurface. We know more about the bottom of the ocean than we do about what is beneath our feet, and industry wastes billions every year because of it.”

It looks like Cinderella will be going to the ball sooner rather than later.

Innovation meets insecurity

Quantum and other frontier technologies were featured at the Farnborough International Airshow, which ran from 20 to 24 July. One of the premier European aerospace and defence fairs, its record numbers reflected a world that is, in the words of Blaise Metreweli, head of MI6, the most dangerous and contested in decades.

She pointed out in her December 2025 opening speech as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service that the UK is “now operating in a space between peace and war.” It is far from the only country doing so. Of the Farnborough exhibitors, ranging from well-known names like British Aerospace to Italy’s Leonardo, more than 63% were international.

The July event had sold out by October 2025 and required an extra exhibition hall. Of its record 1,636 exhibitors, 22% were there for the first time, highlighting new participants in the defence space. The same goes for investors. Over 600 finance and investment professionals showed up for the newly launched Aerospace Global Forum: Finance Summit. Innovation and investment were the new markers for Farnborough.

US firms took up over a third of the site’s total exhibition space, giving smaller, innovative firms access to some of the world’s biggest defence and aerospace buyers in one location. But the new emphasis on sovereignty – one of the issues dominating the show – in a world where US commitment to its allies is subject to tsunamis of change, made the US presence a double-edged sword.

Admiral Sir George Zambellas, a former First Sea Lord, put this clearly in an article on Galaxkey that focused on data as a national asset. His view is that the UK and others have been too complacent in choosing efficiency over data sovereignty. By accepting the convenience of information being in the cloud, virtually all run by American companies, their “data back door is wide open to exploitation in networks, communication systems, energy grids, logistics and digital infrastructure. And in the military.”

Supply chains in choppy waters

President Donald Trump’s pop-up tariffs, announced recently, have certainly added to the increased complexity of international trade and investment, already dealing with supply chains battered by a more hostile world and its logistical challenges.

For quantum sensors, for instance, the supply chain is a major vulnerability. Over 90% of the processing of ultra-pure materials needed for them takes place outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), according to a study for NATO by Heijman Consultancy and CJW Quantum Consulting.

Navigating the shoals of this new world disorder will take both technological and human skills. We wish the UK’s newly installed prime minister, Andy Burnham, the best of luck as he steers the ship of state over the next few years.

The opinions in this column are those of the author and not necessarily shared by the CISI.

Security, space and the Walbrook Club

On 16 June, Frances’s national cybersecurity agency ANSSI announced that it will not certify security products that lack quantum-resistant encryption from 2027. What it means in practice is that any company selling to state bodies will be shut out of the bidding for, say, infrastructure projects such as building data centres.

A week later, President Trump signed an executive order, ‘Securing the nation against advanced cryptographic attacks’. It brings forward deadlines for government agencies to transition to quantum-secure communications: December 2030 for key encryption systems and December 2031 for other systems.

This is a wake-up call to other countries. The French and the Americans are right to accelerate regulation for three reasons.

First, there has been a constant stream of news this year about quantum computing advancements.

Second, adversaries are harvesting data now, with the aim of decrypting it later when quantum computers reach that capability.

Third, the cost of cyberattacks is escalating. For instance, a 2025 attack on vehicle manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover had a UK financial impact of £1.9bn and affected over 5,000 organisations, according to estimates from the Cyber Monitoring Centre.

Adversaries are harvesting data now, with the aim of decrypting it later when quantum computers reach that capabilityAON’s biennial authoritative ‘Global risk management survey’ (GRMS) risk register, published in October 2025, continues to place cyberattacks as the number one risk, with AI adoption accelerating exposure. The GRMS also notes that geopolitical volatility is, for the first time, seen as a top ten risk. That feeds into the fragility of cyber safety, as hostile state actors support criminal groups targeting companies and governments.

Our world is too digital-dependent to allow lax deadlines for adopting the armour of post-quantum cryptography. The clarion call from the French and the Americans should be heeded by all.

Space to growQuantum and cybersecurity are two of the UK’s industrial strategy priority technologies. The others are AI, semiconductors, engineering biology and advanced connectivity. Space seems an odd omission, given its relevance to all those mentioned.

The global space economy could grow to US$1.8tn by 2035 from US$630bn in 2023, notes a report from the World Economic Forum and McKinsey. It can help deal with Earth’s many issues.

Data centres with their vast energy use and high costs? Cheaper to run in space, with the added environmental benefit of space-based solar power. Other benefits: satellite upgrades in situ without the need to bring down the hardware, biomedical research which could speed up drug discovery for cancers, and detection of outbreaks of crop disease through improved satellite communication.

One of the world’s most valuable companies is SpaceX. Although founder Elon Musk’s personality – arguably too big for this planet – played a part in its market capitalisation reaching around US$2.43tn following its IPO, experienced venture capital and institutional funds also bought into the equity issue on 12 June. The valuation suggests investors see value beyond the hype.

“The rate of growth of the space industry has been propelled by exponential declines in the cost of access to space,” notes Rob Desborough, managing partner of Seraphim Space. “It has fallen by 100 times in the last decade, with a further potential 100 times fall projected over the next decade.”

The investment trust’s global Space Index reports a record US$8bn in investment deployed in Q1 2026, double the last quarter of 2025, a clear indication that state actors and private companies are doubling down on the sector.

The UK has, as in many technologies, been outstanding on the science front and in financing start-ups. However, it is lagging in scale-up capital, currently standing 23rd place in the world for average deal size in the space sector, due to the lack of Series A/B funding and further fundraising.

The solution is twofold. The government should add the space sector to its industrial strategy, thus ensuring policy drivers on tax relief and incentives are put in place. And institutional UK funds should step up their involvement in the sector through the Mansion House Accord, a voluntary agreement to invest in non-listed assets.

A club with characterRocket-like in its ascent is the Walbrook Club. Under the leadership of the Hon. Philip Palumbo, who took over from his father in 2018, membership numbers have risen to 650, all squeezed into a beautiful little Queen-Anne style brick house, sandwiched between a Wren church and modern, glass-abundant buildings like that of Bloomberg.

Guest speakers range from ambassadors to CEOs to politicians.

Many years ago, I overheard a conversation between two Conservative Party politicians in the bar area. One told the other she planned to “throw her hat in the ring” to be prime minister. She made it. Her companion became her chancellor. Liz Truss did not last long, nor did Kwasi Kwarteng.

Let us hope for some prime ministerial stability amidst yet another reshuffle at the top of UK government.

The Walbrook, unlike cryptography, the space sector and government, needs no improvement.

Introducing a new Review column by quantum expert Karina Robinson FCSI(Hon), exploring the worlds of technology, investment and innovation through a personal lens

You know quantum has reached the mainstream when ultra-fashionable Cannes, better known for its iconic film festival, joins the party. The inaugural World Quantum Cannes Festival has just been announced for late November.

This follows a home run for the sector in the past month. Three numbers sum it up:

• The US government spent US$2bn on buying stakes in quantum companies, a vote of confidence in the industry.

• Quantinuum, the merger of UK spin-out Cambridge Quantum and US entity Honeywell Quantum, just listed on Nasdaq at an unexpectedly high valuation of US$15.7bn.

• Boston Consulting Group's report on the global quantum industry, highlighting technical breakthroughs and enterprise engagement, forecasts long-term value creation of up to US$850bn.

What about the UK?

Despite the revolving door for prime ministers under the previous Conservative governments and, most likely, under Labour this year, UK governments have done a stellar job in creating a thriving quantum ecosphere. The UK stands in second place after the US for the number of private quantum companies and ranks third globally for the impact and quality of its academic research. This is all the more admirable considering the parlous state of the nation’s finances.

The successful recipe lies in productive collaboration between academia, the private sector and government. Over the past dozen years, spin-outs from world-class universities have found seed funding, quantum hubs have been created all over the country, conferences have sprouted, and the various governments have created and modified a national strategy.

The secret ingredient is Professor Sir Peter Knight, a quantum guru who has chaired the Strategic Advisory Board of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme since its inception in 2014. From his base at Imperial College a dozen years ago, he spearheaded cooperation between the different sectors, combining a friendly demeanour with a powerful ability to build consensus.

The government, which announced a £2bn package for quantum innovation in March, estimates it could boost productivity by 7% in the next two decades and create over 100,000 jobs in the process. Currently, there are over 350 UK-based companies involved in the different quantum disciplines, from networking to computing to sensors.

What many of them need is scaling up capital, the main challenge in the UK and Europe for all companies involved in technology.

Scale-up capital

This brings me to Scale-Up Capital 2026, a recent event put on by the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs at the behest of Alderman Alastair King DL FCSI(Hon), former Lord Mayor of the City of London and currently Master of the livery company.

In the inspirational setting of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), 14 promising companies pitched to investors for scale-up finance. Did it work?

Yes, according to the founder and CEO of one of the companies involved, who told me, “The event was great. We got three new investors interested and one that already knew us reached out to catch up and potentially join the round.”

Initiatives like this are vitally important for the UK, which, as noted in a recent Review article, has “one of the world’s strongest seed-stage start-up hubs, but when it comes to scaling those companies, the system breaks down”.

The size of the problem is immense. The Entrepreneurs Network mentioned in its latest newsletter that although over £17bn was invested in innovative British companies, fewer than 600 raised Series A or B funding (around £3.8bn). In addition, only about 7% of seed-funded start-ups progressed to securing institutional scale-up capital. Heading abroad for funds should not be the only solution.

However, there are measures aplenty to try and solve the problem, from the government changing the tax rules on private investment in non-quoted companies, to the LSE transforming its listing rules, to the Mansion House Accord, which aims to channel institutional moneys to venture capital. What they all need is a sense of urgency.

The UK is a source of innovation

To the Barbican Centre, that monstrous example of brutalist architecture from the 1970s, for a reception hosted by its chair, Sir William Russell, Lord Mayor of the City of London 2019–2021, and board member Sir Nick Lyons, chair of Standard Life.

It is planning a major overhaul under new CEO Abigail Pogson. Whether its distinctive look, what one could call ‘brick, darkness & confusion’, can be transformed is not clear. What is clear is that the arts centre is already buzzing, packed with guests spanning all ages, there to see contemporary film, listen to classical music, wander through art exhibitions and munch in its many cafes and restaurants.

A summer musical with Ariana Grande, a star of song and screen, will pack in the Millennial generation. The current Cole Porter musical, High Society, is already attracting an older crowd (your correspondent included), won over by classic songs about trying to forget a past lover or wanting to be a millionaire, and the changing mores of socialite Tracy Lord.

Let us end with her best line: “The time to make up your mind is never.” It addresses the personal transformation of her ex-husband, who becomes her second husband. In the same way, for those who have written off the UK as a source of innovative, large-scale companies, think again.