NPL welcomes Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation to Teddington

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NPL welcomed Andrew Griffith, Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, to its site in Teddington to meet scientists and engineers and hear about the latest innovations in quantum.

During the visit the Minister met with NPL experts and engaged with multiple projects that are providing confidence to industry and ensuring the UK is at the forefront of scientific innovation. The minister heard about the work NPL is doing across all 5 of the government’s critical technology areas and how NPL is working to directly contribute to the realisation of the Quantum Missions, which were announced in the Autumn Statement.

The projects and research included:

Maintaining the UK’s National Time Scale - NPL operates the national time scale UTC(NPL) and the UK primary frequency standards and uses these to contribute to global timekeeping. NPL also disseminates accurate time and frequency to users across the UK, via services such as the MSF radio time signal, an internet time service, and NPLTime®.

Driving the development and commercialisation of quantum technologies in the UK NPL’s Advanced Quantum Metrology Laboratories enables the harnessing of quantum effects to deliver increased information processing power, secure communications, high-precision navigation and earlier diagnosis of diseases.

During the visit, Minister Griffith also met with met NPL postgraduate researchers and apprentices.

Minister Griffith was accompanied during his visit by NPL CEO Dr Peter Thompson, who commented, “Our science and engineering facilities at NPL, which the Minister has seen, are directly contributing to the realisation of the Quantum Missions. The significant investments at NPL in quantum, focus on ensuring that the UK sees the benefits to our economic prosperity, national security, and wellbeing. Innovative UK companies of all sizes are working with us to test their quantum technologies’, leading to greater investment and scale up, and accelerating both their ability to get technologies to market quicker, and to trade more effectively.”