The National Cryogenic Facility (NCF) will receive £51.2 million from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund to help scientists run tests in temperatures below deep space.
Image Credit: UKRI
It will provide industry and academia with the conditions to assess materials and perform testing from 2 Kelvin (-271.15 °C) to 20 Kelvin (-253.15 °C). A lab at these temperatures helps upscale technologies and propel innovation in sectors including quantum computing and high temperature superconductor (HTS) technologies.
This large-scale facility will be situated at UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Daresbury Laboratory to deliver an approximately six-fold increase in cryo-capacity, most notably for scale-up by quantum computing companies like global leaders PsiQuantum.
NCF will also act as a centre of excellence to drive skills development in cryogenic design, technologies and system operation, identified as areas of key UK skills shortage. A UK Quantum Skills Taskforce report highlights that new jobs created globally in the quantum computing sector will reach 250,000 by 2030, and 840,000 by 2035.
