A national research hub led by Heriot-Watt University, launched in 2025, bringing together universities, national laboratories and industry to build the UK's quantum communications networks.
The Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN) Hub is a UK research programme, not a company, but it is one of the main places where quantum communications is developed in this country. Its aim is to develop the technologies, protocols and industry standards needed for a secure, scalable quantum communications infrastructure in the UK and beyond, working towards what is often called the quantum internet. It is one of five quantum technology hubs in a government-backed programme, and it was launched in 2025.
The hub is led by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, with Professor Gerald Buller as its leader. It follows on from the earlier UK Quantum Communications Hub, which ran from 2014 and built the UK's first quantum network, shrank key distribution equipment to chip scale, and demonstrated satellite and free-space links. That earlier hub is known for connecting Bristol and Cambridge and for projects with BT at Adastral Park. Its stated mission was to speed up the development and commercial use of quantum secure communications at all distances.
The IQN Hub brings together twelve universities: Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Imperial, Oxford, Queen's Belfast, Sheffield, Southampton, Strathclyde, Warwick and York. Two national laboratories also take part, the National Physical Laboratory and the STFC RAL Space, along with more than 40 industry partners, including BT. The launch took place in Edinburgh. Because the work is spread across so many places, jobs linked to the hub are found at partner universities and companies all around the UK rather than at one site.
We did not find culture material for the hub itself, which is a collaboration and not an employer in the usual sense. What the sources show is a research community in which academics, early-career researchers and industry engineers work on shared projects, often with company partners such as KETS, ID Quantique and Craft Prospect, which also appear in this section.
People working on hub projects include physicists, engineers, computer scientists, doctoral students and research staff, together with project managers and technical staff at partner companies. For a student, the hub is a way to see the whole picture: a degree in physics, engineering, computer science or maths can lead to a PhD or a job with one of the partners. The hub and its partners publish their opportunities on their own websites.
Website: www.hw.ac.uk
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