The UK Modern Industrial Strategy makes Digital and Technologies one of its eight high-growth sectors, the IS-8. It is the sector that underpins the other seven, covering AI, cyber, semiconductors, and quantum, and its standout frontier, quantum computing, has one of its most important clusters on our doorstep in Brighton.
This page is our analysis of what that means for the technology and deep-tech engineering companies that build and supply this sector, and what to do about it now. For the wider picture across all eight sectors, start with our UK Modern Industrial Strategy overview.
Why digital and technologies, and why now
This sector carries some of the strategy's largest commitments: £500 million for a Sovereign AI effort, a growing network of AI Growth Zones unlocking data centre investment, and, in the latest quarterly delivery, nearly £4 billion of UKRI funding directed at the sector's frontier industries, including more than £1 billion for quantum technologies alone.
Quantum is the headline. The strategy has dedicated £670 million to accelerating it toward working quantum computers by 2035, and a further £1 billion was committed to British quantum computing in early 2026. Oxford Economics, cited in the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan, projects quantum could create 126,100 UK jobs and add £11 billion to GDP by 2045.
The timing is driven by a global race. The Financial Times reports that leading technology companies now expect quantum computers to start outperforming conventional machines by 2030, with governments taking strategic stakes, the US alone committing $2 billion of equity across nine quantum companies, and McKinsey forecasting around 5,000 quantum systems worldwide by 2030 (Financial Times). The UK is determined to hold a leading position, and a good deal of that effort is happening just outside Brighton.
The cluster on our doorstep
We are based in Brighton, in what the Science and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, has called Greater Brighton's emerging "Quantum Silicon Valley." It is anchored by two organisations doing world-leading work.
The University of Sussex's Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies is a global leader in quantum, with plans to build one of the world's most powerful computers. In 2025 its researchers set a world record in quantum sensing, detecting electric fields around 100 times more precisely than before, with applications across healthcare, defence, navigation, and communications.
Universal Quantum, a Sussex spin-out led by Professor Sebastian Weidt, builds modular, trapped-ion quantum computers designed to scale to millions of qubits from its headquarters in nearby Haywards Heath. It is delivering a €67 million contract for the German Aerospace Centre, and was named to Tech Nation's Future Fifty 2026 cohort of leading UK scaleups. When Peter Kyle visited Sussex and Universal Quantum in 2025, he called their work "exactly the kind of regional innovation our Industrial Strategy is designed to support and encourage."
For us, that proximity is not a nice-to-have. We understand how these companies talk about their work, who their buyers and partners are, and how a deep-tech business earns credibility, because we work alongside the cluster that is helping define the sector nationally.
What are the opportunities for technology and deep-tech suppliers
The UK Modern Industrial Strategy and the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan back the frontier industries within the sector: AI, advanced connectivity, semiconductors, cybersecurity, engineering biology, and quantum.
You may already be a quantum supplier. Quantum computers are built from hardware that specialist engineers and manufacturers already make: cryogenics and ultra-high vacuum systems, lasers and photonics, precision-machined ion traps, RF and control electronics, specialist cabling, and the test and measurement around them. As this cluster scales, that supply chain scales with it. If you work in precision engineering, vacuum, electronics, or advanced materials, the quantum sector is a route worth understanding.
AI infrastructure and data centres. AI Growth Zones are unlocking major data centre investment, with recent zones in the North East, Lanarkshire, and North and South Wales carrying potential for thousands of jobs and billions in private investment. That build-out needs power, cooling, construction, connectivity, and hardware suppliers.
Semiconductors and compute. A new semiconductor centre is being established in King's Cross, and the government is expanding access to compute for UK researchers, backed by up to £250 million, alongside private data centre investments from companies such as CoreWeave and Seagate.
Finance and scaleup support. The British Business Bank's £4 billion of Industrial Strategy Growth Capital is aimed at exactly these high-growth technology companies, and programmes like Tech Nation's Future Fifty support the scaleups that anchor the supply chain.
Skills and talent. An AI Skills Boost aims to give 10 million workers AI skills by 2030, new Technical Excellence Colleges cover Digital and Technologies, and the £54 million Global Talent Fund and visa reforms are bringing in world-class researchers.
What's live now
Already open or imminent: the £500 million Sovereign AI effort, the £1 billion quantum commitment, the King's Cross semiconductor centre, expanded compute access, AI Growth Zones across the UK, and UKRI's multi-billion-pound allocations to the sector's frontier industries. The cluster near us is hiring, building, and contracting now.
The honest picture, and why it works in your favour
Quantum carries genuine uncertainty. The same Financial Times reporting notes that some scientists still doubt useful machines can be built at all, and that progress will be incremental. The race, as the FT puts it, is wide open. That is precisely why the suppliers and deep-tech specialists that become visible and credible early are the ones that win work as the cluster matures, rather than waiting for a winner to be declared. The funding is flowing now, the local ecosystem is forming now, and being a known, verifiable supplier to it is a position you build before the field settles, not after.
What to do now
We apply a structured 3-step process to ensure your company shows up and stands out from the first supplier search to the final shortlist.
Step 1: Foundations and conversion
Step 2: Trust and consideration
Step 3: Awareness and network scaling
This is the heart of our B2B lead generation work for engineering and manufacturing companies: turning the investment this strategy is creating into qualified enquiries.
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Let's talk
You can speak with Simon Batchelar, Co-Founder and Marketing Strategy Consultant at Pallant, who has prepared this analysis and can discuss how your business can position itself to benefit from the funding and support available.
Sources and further reading
- UK Modern Industrial Strategy (full policy paper)
- Digital and Technologies Sector Plan
- Industrial Strategy Sector Plans
- Quarterly update: October to December 2025
- Local quantum cluster: the University of Sussex's Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies (see Peter Kyle's visit and its world-record quantum sensing discovery) and Universal Quantum.
- Commentary: Financial Times, The quantum computing revolution is closer than you think (Big Read, 2026).
Last reviewed June 2026. We update this analysis as the government publishes new commitments and quarterly delivery data.