Innovate UK backs Aquark to deploy quantum atomic clock for telecoms resilience
This article covers Aquark Technologies, a corporate quantum technology company, winning a £1,409,702 contract from Innovate UK to deploy its miniaturised cold-atom clock, AQlock 2, at a UK telecommunications site. The award aims to demonstrate a GNSS-independent timing solution for critical networks, supporting telecoms, power and emergency services and advancing commercial readiness for quantum positioning, navigation and timing.
Aquark Technologies has won a £1,409,702 grant from Innovate UK to deploy its miniaturised cold-atom atomic clock, AQlock 2, at a UK telecommunications site. The award aims to demonstrate a GNSS-independent timing solution for critical networks, a practical test of quantum sensing moving out of the lab and into infrastructure that underpins telecoms, power and emergency services.
Why it matters
Modern telecoms and many critical services depend on precise timing that is often tied to global navigation satellite systems. Those systems are vulnerable to jamming, spoofing and solar activity, and the government and industry cite large economic exposures from outages. Aquark’s project is positioned as a defence against those risks by providing an alternative, locally deployable source of accurate timing.
Innovate UK frames the contract as a step toward commercial readiness for quantum positioning, navigation and timing, and as part of the National Quantum Strategy goal of reducing reliance on satellite signals for national infrastructure resilience.
Inside the product
AQlock 2 is a compact, cold-atom-based atomic clock. Aquark says it uses vacuum engineering, microfabrication and a patented method for trapping and cooling atoms to shrink otherwise lab-scale quantum hardware into a deployable package. The company positions the system as more resilient and easier to integrate than existing, larger solutions.
Aquark has previously trialled technology with the National Physical Laboratory and the Royal Navy, and those collaborations inform the usability and robustness testing for a telecoms deployment. The current project includes NPL and Purbrook as subcontractors and will run until the end of March 2026, when the AQlock 2 system is due to be installed at a UK telecommunications site.
Who’s backing the round
Who’s backing the round
Innovate UK awarded Aquark a £1,409,702 contract under the Contract for Innovation: Quantum Sensors and PNT Missions Primer. The funding is intended to support a demonstration of commercial readiness and to showcase the technology’s ability to enhance national critical infrastructure.
NPL and Purbrook are listed as subcontractors on the project. Aquark has also previously held other Innovate UK contracts and a £1.9 million Future Leaders’ Fellowship, indicating an ongoing relationship with public sector R&D funders and an established set of institutional partners.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Alexander Jantzen, COO and Co-Founder of Aquark Technologies, said:
It is vital that we protect our telecoms – not just for the benefit of daily civilian life, but also for our national security and economy. It’s therefore an honour to work alongside Innovate UK to bring this project to life.
With AQlock 2, we will reduce the UK’s reliance on satellite signals that are vulnerable to jamming, spoofing, solar storms and more. This will help protect millions from the power outages, emergency services and supply chain disruption our networks are at risk of today, as well as address the huge economic losses that can occur as a result.
The bigger picture
This award illustrates a wider push to commercialise quantum sensors beyond research labs into practical infrastructure deployments. Government backing through Innovate UK is consistent with recent policy emphasis in the UK on building quantum capability and resilient critical infrastructure. For the telecoms sector, small, deployable atomic clocks are one of several technical routes being evaluated to reduce dependence on GNSS.
As the project progresses toward on-site deployment in 2026, it will be a useful case study in how quantum timing hardware integrates with existing network operations and supply chains, and whether such systems can be scaled and sustained across the UK and Europe.
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