Reflections from Economist Enterprise’s Commercialising Quantum

14 July 2026

Last month, members of our quantum team had the opportunity to attend Economist Enterprise's fifth annual Commercialising Quantum Global summit.

For a third year running, TFD supported Economist Enterprise’s media programme for the event, driving visibility ahead of the summit and helping to maximise value for sponsors by engaging key media to attend the event.

Commercialising Quantum is a highlight in the events calendar,  bringing together the quantum ecosystem to translate quantum science and technology into practical delivery and business value. The event convenes business, academia, investors, end-users and media, with a clear focus on how quantum can be applied to daily life.

So, what were the big themes this year?

The Challenge of Communicating Quantum: Closing the Gaps

Lord Vallance's opening speech set the tone for the summit: the UK is no longer in a phase of mere ‘potential’, but one focused on delivery.

With three of the world's top five quantum clusters based in the UK, the focus is now on scaling, deployment and upskilling talent to build a national advantage. As Lord Vallance put it, the task at hand is to translate the UK’s strength into economic and societal benefit, moving our technology out of the lab and into the real world as part of the UK’s industrial strategy.

The ProQure programme is a key example here, focused on making government an early customer for quantum applications by the early 2030s.

A wave of new funding announcements reinforced this commitment. There was £33m for quantum computing supply chains, £13m for quantum software, and £32.8m for Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) and quantum sensing supply chains. A further £30m for quantum sensing funding is due in July.

Standards also came into sharp focus with the launch during the event of the UK Quantum Standards Network. This £10m initiative is led by the National Physical Laboratory and will cover quantum and cyber centres, testing, benchmarking and interoperability.

It’s clear that the foundations are rapidly being built and there is high investment potential and great companies to back - now the UK needs real delivery and adoption.

Sovereignty, scale and strategic resilience

Building on this, Lord William Hague's session introduced a more urgent geopolitical lens.

Drawing on the Tony Blair Institute's recent report, Lord Hague delivered his argument with conviction: quantum technologies presents a huge opportunity to drive economic prosperity and resilience in the UK. This, he said, demands much more attention among policymakers.

The UK ranks third globally in academic research and has the second highest number of quantum startups globally. But the challenge of converting this research into applications that are commercially viable is where the hard work begins.

Three constraints stood out throughout the session: R&D needs targeted effort to solve specific engineering problems blocking scale. Second, scale itself requires access to domestic capital, and lastly, resilience needs support from the wider ecosystem. This includes cryogenics, infrastructure for scale, and cooling systems, which are key for datacentres.

McKinsey estimates quantum could be worth $2.7 trillion within 10 years, but realising it will require more coordinated action across government, industry and investment.

From the booth to the roof: raising a glass to the quantum community

This year also marked a first for TFD, as we had our very own booth on the exhibition floor!

Across the two days, we got to know our neighbouring exhibitors and met many new and interesting attendees from a myriad of backgrounds in quantum - some just getting into the industry, while others were veterans in the field, hailing from defence, law, investment and academia.

One of our team members, Alex, experienced the event for the first time this year. Here’s what he had to say about the experience:

"Attending Economist Enterprise for the first time was fantastic, and a great opportunity to represent TFD alongside innovators in quantum.

The highlight for me was the Quantum + AI talk. It was really interesting to hear how the two technologies work together, especially how companies are moving past the hype and finding practical ways to use AI to improve quantum tech right now.

Getting out there and experiencing these events first hand is one of my favourite parts of working in this field, as it's the best way to get a feel for where the industry is heading next."

Looking ahead 

What was clear from both the talks and the conversations on the floor is the speed at which interest in quantum is moving, and how conversations are shifting from R&D and technical milestones to tangible, commercial use cases. This focus on industrial applications, and the government and financial support to realise them, is exactly what the sector needs, and we can't wait to see how it evolves in the year ahead.

For us, it was also a valuable reminder of the role communications plays in achieving this – giving companies and teams the tools to position themselves, tell their stories and connect with the right audiences to seize this momentum as the market evolves.

To discuss how TFD can help you tell your quantum story, please get in touch or sign up for our newsletter, the Quantum Communicator, here.