Working together on ground-breaking science

Researchers at Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde team up with international partners to develop quantum technologies for medical imaging and new materials for better medicines

• Researchers at Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde universities team up with international partners to develop technologies of tomorrow
• Teams at Heriot-Watt will work on developing quantum technologies capable of measuring single light particles that could be used for medical imaging or detecting objects behind barriers
• A team from Strathclyde will develop new materials which could improve the processing and performance of drugs such as tablets and capsules

Leading UK researchers from Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde universities will work with international collaborators to develop the technologies of tomorrow, including quantum technologies for medical imaging and new materials for better medicines.

They are among 12 projects announced today bringing together UK and international researchers to develop cutting-edge new technologies, funded through a £17 million investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

One team at Heriot-Watt, led by Professor Gerald Buller, has been awarded a £1.3 million grant to advance quantum technologies capable of measuring single light particles.

Detectors that are capable of measuring the single quantum of light – the photon – are critical to many quantum technologies.

These technologies include quantum communications systems which connect remote quantum processors, and quantum-enhanced imaging approaches for uses such as medical imaging, detecting objects that are faint or behind barriers and satellite communication networks.

The team will work with collaborators at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology in the US.

Professor Buller said: “The impact of this project will be found in both advancing the emerging applications of quantum technology, as well as in more ‘blue-sky’ quantum research. 

“Accessing the state-of-the-art detect single-photon detectors from this project will enable a range of advances in emerging quantum technologies such as quantum communications and quantum-enhanced imaging. 

“In parallel, this project will allow examination of more fundamental studies of quantum entanglement in ultra-high dimensional quantum imaging and communications.”

A team of researchers at Strathclyde, led by Professor Alastair Florence, has been awarded a £1.2 million grant to work with collaborators in the USA, advance the development of amorphous materials, which are rigid and can hold their shape like solids but have disordered atomic structures like liquids.

They have huge potential in medicines manufacturing where they could be used to improve the processing and overall performance of drugs, in particular treatments which are taken orally such as tablets and capsules.

The team will work with collaborators at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Ghent University in Belgium.

Professor Florence said: “This ambitious new international collaboration will develop new science and digital technologies to de-risk the use of amorphous solid forms, reduce the timescale and cost of their development, deliver innovation in their design and manufacture, and help drive the adoption of this versatile and important class of materials across pharmaceutical industry.

“Crucially, the project will also help to develop the talent pipeline and future research leaders for industry as well as academia.”

UK Science Minister George Freeman said: “From improving cancer treatment and generating clean growth to designing the communication networks of tomorrow, UK science, technology and innovation is developing pioneering solutions to the some of the world’s greatest challenges.

“These 12 international projects will harness the expertise of the UK’s world-leading researchers and global collaborators, helping us accelerate our path to an innovation nation and underline our position as a science superpower.”

EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Dame Lynn Gladden said: ““From better, cheaper medicines to powerful quantum computers and next-generation communications networks, these new technologies have the potential to transform the way we live.

“By bringing together world-leading researchers to deliver ground-breaking science and engineering solutions, these projects will generate impact that will be felt across all of society.”

The projects are:

• A project led by Durham University aims to develop molecular quantum technologies for use in powerful quantum computers. They aim to use ultracold molecules cooled to within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero as the building blocks of new computing platforms, exploiting the rich internal structure of molecules to unlock the enormous processing power of quantum computation.

Partners: Imperial College London, University of Oxford, Harvard University (USA), JILA at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA)

• Led by the University of Birmingham, researchers intend to develop robust and transportable optical clocks which use light to provide an unparalleled precision in timekeeping. They have a wide range of potential uses, from helping planes and ships to navigate to underpinning ultra-high broadband networks.

Partners: University of Nottingham, NPL, Riken (Japan), University of Tokyo (Japan), the University of Düsseldorf (Germany), PTB (Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt) (Germany), Technical University Munich (Germany)

• Researchers at Heriot-Watt University will work with US collaborators to advance quantum technologies capable of measuring single light particles. These have a wide range of applications, including medical imaging, detecting objects behind barriers and satellite communication networks.

Partners: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (USA), California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (USA)

• A project led by the University of Leeds aims to improve the development of medicines by mimicking how naturally occurring bioactive molecules emerge and using chemistry that can explore structures that are inaccessible to nature. Researchers will develop new ways to discover bioactive molecules more effectively, which will ultimately speed up and make cheaper the process of developing medicines for use as cancer, degeneration and infectious disease treatments.

Partners: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (Germany) and Rosalind Franklin Institute

• Working with collaborators in the USA, a team led by the University of Sheffield aims to develop the technology needed to fabricate ultimate visible light communication (VLC) systems and micro-displays. Using lasers on tiny chips in our devices, VLC could potentially offer bandwidth more than three orders of magnitude larger than conventional Wi-Fi or 5G.

Partners: University of Strathclyde, University of Bath, Harvard University (USA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

• Researchers led by Newcastle University aim to ensure that electric vehicles using the Internet of Things to optimise energy usage are cyber-secure. They will test the vulnerability of electric vehicles, national grids and charging infrastructure while developing the approaches needed to protect them against cyberattacks including the zero-day attacks.

Partners: Cardiff University, University of Sydney (Australia), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (Australia)

• A project led by The University of Manchester intends to increase, by up to a million-fold, the volume of manufactured materials that can be X-ray imaged to identify defects. Focusing on battery, composite materials and additive (3D printed) manufacturing, this will guide the manufacturing of new products and improve their performance.

Partner: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (France)

• A project led by the University of Exeter aims to develop new metamaterials, materials whose structure is designed to give bespoke functionality and performance beyond what nature offers. As they are adaptable, reconfigurable and programmable they have an enormous range of applications, from energy-efficient optical computing and smaller, lighter mobile phones to increasing wireless network capacity, emissions sensors and real-time image manipulation in Augmented Reality.

Partners: National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Metamaterials (USA), Airbus, BAE Systems, Ball Aerospace (USA), Bodkin Design, British Telecommunications, The City University of New York (USA), Dstl, Metamaterial Technologies, M.Ventures (Merck) (Netherlands), NASA (USA), Oxford Instruments, Phoebus Optoelectronics (USA), QinetiQ, Thales, Transense Technologies, Wave Optics

• A team led by the University of Strathclyde will advance the development of amorphous materials, which are rigid and can hold their shape like solids but have disordered atomic structures like liquids. They have huge potential in medicines manufacturing where they could be used to improve the processing and overall performance of drugs, in particular treatments which are taken orally such as tablets and capsules.

Partners: University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Ghent University (Belgium)

• A project led by the University of Leeds aims to improve the outcomes of surgical treatments for osteoarthritis, a condition affecting more than 8 million people in the UK and costing the NHS more than £10 billion a year. Researchers intend to use personalised approaches to evaluate devices such as hip and knee replacements so they can be matched to individual patients’ needs, reducing the risk of complications.

Partner: The Center for Orthopaedic Biomechanics, University of Denver (USA)

• A project led by the Imperial College London ​and UCL aims to develop sophisticated mathematical optimisation algorithms that can guarantee finding the best possible designs and operational strategies in industrial processes and their supply chains. These algorithms will be designed and implemented to facilitate use by decision makers across the process industries to balance economic performance, safety and environmental impacts and handle uncertainty

Partner: RWTH Aachen University (Germany)

• A project led by Aston University aims to advance frequency comb technology, which allows light to be measured and controlled and has potential in areas such as telecommunications, gas sensing and sensing for the food industry. Researchers aim to design and develop a new family of light sources with improved robustness, performance and versatility to allow for practical applications in a wide range of different fields.

Partners: University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France), University of Lille (France)