Sector leaders join quantum innovation programme to drive UK industrial transformation  

Digital Catapult has today welcomed eleven leading organisations to the third cohort of its Quantum Technology Access Programme (QTAP), delivered in collaboration with the National Quantum Computing Centre’s (NQCC) SparQ programme. Designed to accelerate the practical application of quantum innovation in industry, the cohort includes NatWest, the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), and Health Innovation North West Coast, part of the UK’s Health Innovation Network. 

For the first time, the programme will apply quantum innovation to financial services and banking operations. NatWest will explore how quantum solutions could help detect fraud and illicit activity across large transaction networks, while CTA Fintech Solutions will examine cross-system optimisation of legacy-to-cloud transaction flows to improve cost efficiency and strengthen resilience in highly regulated environments. This focus on financial services reflects growing demand for quantum innovation and its role in building the UK’s sovereign capability while identifying new practical use cases for the technology. 

One novel use case set to be explored through the programme will apply quantum computing to improve diagnostic modelling, treatment pathways and outcome forecasting for thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare and life-threatening blood disorder considered a medical emergency. Through its participation, Health Innovation North West Coast aims to improve health and care outcomes for patients with TTP, supported by innovation and technology consultancy and access to ORCA Computing’s PT-2 quantum computer. 

The programme will also trial and validate use cases across defence and security, supply chains and logistics, and transport and infrastructure, demonstrating the potential of quantum innovation across UK industry and its role in supporting the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. The latest cohort will demonstrate how quantum as a frontier technology can be applied to all the high-growth sectors outlined in the Industrial Strategy, underpinning economic growth.  QTAP provides UK-based companies with a guided pathway to understand quantum technologies, assess their sector-specific value, and move from concept to practical application through expert guidance and experimentation. 

Previous participants include Vodafone, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, the Port of Dover and the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Now in its third year, the programme’s latest phase will combine Digital Catapult’s expertise with the NQCC’s expanding national capability in quantum computing and testbeds. The cohort will explore two high-impact quantum use case streams: combinatorial optimisation, addressing challenges such as logistics, resource allocation and scheduling; and quantum machine learning, focused on supporting next-generation data analysis and pattern discovery. 

The programme will run until February 2027, supporting new commercial and collaborative partnerships that will help advance quantum innovation across UK industry. This includes continued collaboration with NQCC and technical partner ORCA Computing, enabling deep tech companies to scale across the UK economy.  

 To learn more about the cohort’s progress and our work with NQCC and ORCA Computing, sign up to the newsletter here. 

• NatWest: NatWest is a British banking and financial services group with operations centered in the UK. NatWest aims to explore ways to address a growing computational challenge: detecting fraud and money laundering across large transaction networks. 
• Rail Safety and Standards Board: The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) is the independent safety, standards, and research body for Great Britain’s railways. RSSB works to improve safety, efficiency, customer satisfaction, and sustainability across the evolving rail network. It hopes to use quantum machine learning to enhance the classification of how trains approach signals. 
• Health Innovation North West Coast: Health Innovation North West Coast, described as the innovation arm of the NHS, aims to improve health and care outcomes by supporting innovative initiatives delivered via programmes, accelerators, training, and an innovation pipeline. It aims to evaluate the application of quantum computing to improve diagnostic, treatment pathway, and outcome modelling, in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare and life‑threatening medical emergency. 
• CTA Fintech Solutions: CTA Fintech Solutions is a UK-based technology company specialising in real-time data infrastructure and multi-system interoperability. CTA Fintech will explore cross-system optimisation of legacy-to-cloud financial and industrial transaction flows, aiming to reduce latency, improve cost efficiency, and build higher system resilience within highly regulated environments. 
• TCS Innovations: TCS-i is a deep-tech company providing API-driven optimisation modules that streamline complex logistics operations. It is exploring the potential of quantum computing to refine the underlying system parameters that feed into its real-time execution engine. 
• Bandarlog.dev: Bandarlog.dev is a UK deep-tech company building physical intelligence for critical infrastructure. By combining edge AI, advanced sensing, and quantum-ready optimisation, its solutions help operators detect faults earlier, reduce unplanned downtime, and improve operational resilience across aerospace, transport, and industrial assets. It wants to apply quantum machine learning to early-stage anomaly detection in critical aerospace and transport assets, extending its already‑validated classical AI and quantum‑sensing–enabled in‑service health monitoring platform. 
• Pixon Chemie: Pixon Chemie is a London-based specialty chemical technology company developing, producing and supplying advanced chemical solutions for the agricultural, mining, and industrial sectors. Pixon Chemie wants to explore how quantum machine learning can be applied to available molecular property databases and computational chemistry reference data, with the goal of building predictive models for screening molecular candidates. 
• Dundi Corp: Dundi Corp is a London-based company specialising in the development and crafting of precision quantum sensors. Dundi Corp wants to explore whether variational quantum algorithms, specifically quantum approximate optimisation algorithms can reduce the latency of multi-parametric feedback loops in semiconductor process control below what classical methods allow. 
• Archborn: Archborn helps defence and industrial organisations improve readiness, resilience and cost performance by embedding advanced quantum-ready optimisation into existing SAP and enterprise systems. Archborn aims to explore the combinatorial optimisation problem of determining how to allocate and route limited resources across a network of nodes with time-varying demand and risk. 
• Build Insite: Build Insite, and its browser-based platform Kelvin, focus on improving how building design and performance analysis are delivered across the construction industry. Build Insite would like to explore the use of quantum optimisation for whole-building performance and engineering system design, particularly in relation to evaluating complex design trade-offs across large solution spaces. 
• PontePatros: PontePatros is a UK-based housing diagnostics and retrofit monitoring company. It has built a connectivity-agnostic IAQ sensor platform to detect damp, mould, and retrofit performance risks in occupied social housing. PontePatros will explore whether quantum machine learning can improve early prediction of retrofit failure and damp/mould recurrence from sparse sensor data, and whether quantum machine learning can enhance risk scoring across its EPC dataset.