The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) hosts three innovation nodes in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, University of Surrey, and Cranfield University. The nodes were developed to stimulate innovation across UK industries by providing research and development support for diverse sectors such as supply chain, telecommunications, transport, energy and finance. The nodes operate through receiving reference time signals traceable to the national time scale - UTC(NPL), directly from NPL.
NPL is the home of UK time and from here accurate timing, traceable to UTC(NPL), is supplied to key locations. The National Timing Centre (NTC) programme is paving the way for trusted and assured time and frequency across the UK, by developing the first nationally distributed time infrastructure, which will aid the acceleration of new technologies such as time-critical 5G and 6G applications, factories of the future and connected autonomous vehicles.
All the nodes act as regional hubs where businesses, researchers, and public-sector organisations can...
The Strathclyde node focuses on supporting quantum, photonics, fintech back office and energy – sectors where the university has leading research and an ecosystem of innovative companies.
A highly accurate caesium clock keeps local time. It synchronises with UTC(NPL) using GPS common-view – a method well suited to time transfer at a distance (Strathclyde is the furthest node from NPL). This involves the node comparing its local clock to GPS Time, while at NPL we compare UTC(NPL) to GPS Time. Based on the difference between these two measurements, NPL calculates a small adjustment and sends it back to the node to steer the local clock.
The node has been expanded to provide optical frequency metrology capability. This enhancement was funded through the NPL Quantum programme through close collaboration with the NTC programme.The capability allows optical references, such as the deployable optical atomic clocks being developed by the Quantum-Enabled Position, Navigation and Timing Hub, to be tested and verified with full traceability to NPL’s standards.
The Surrey node supports local expertise in developing future communications, providing signals to Surrey’s 5/6G Innovation Centre for use in telecoms research.
Surrey’s innovation node delivers White Rabbit timing signals - a high-precision timing protocol, pioneered by CERN, that combines Ethernet and Precision Time Protocol to synchronise devices over fibre-optic networks with sub-nanosecond accuracy.
The Cranfield node focuses on supporting local innovation in aviation, autonomous transport and smart cities.
Cranfield receives a time signal by a fibre link from NPL, which feeds a commercially available Timeserver. This distributes signals to local systems using PTP, a network protocol used to synchronise clocks across devices in a communication network.
The NTC programme plans to develop the first nationally distributed timing infrastructure to improve resilience, support the innovation of new technologies and pave the way for trusted time and frequency in the UK.
Our NPLTime® Services offer industry access to terrestrial timing signals, traceable to UTC(NPL), with service level agreements.
Through the National Timing Centre (NTC) R&D programme, NPL partnered with Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to grant funding of up to £6.7 million towards feasibility studies and demonstration projects in resilient time, frequency and synchronisation (TFS). This provided a national opportunity for UK businesses and research organisations to select and access a timing node and collaborate in the development of new products, services and end user applications. Between 2021 and 2025, a total of 26 projects were supported by this funding, provided by the UK Government’s Strategic Priorities Fund. Five included access to traceable timing signals and five received technical consultancy from NPL.
To find out how we can support you and to discover more about the NTC programme and the innovation nodes, contact us with your enquiry:
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