Centre for Quantum Technology

The University of Glasgow contributes more than £4 billion to the UK economy, according to a new study into its economic impact.
 
The World Changing Glasgow: Our Economic Impact estimated UofG’s total economic impact on the UK economy to be £4.4 billion, a breakdown of its activities showed:

• research stood at £1.8 billion, 42 percent of the total.
• operating and capital expenditures equalled £1.2 billion (27%).
• teaching and learning accounted for £734 million (17%).
• the remaining 14% (£631 million) was associated with the University’s educational exports.

London Economics, which carried out independent analysis of data from 2018/19, also found that for every £1million it spends, a further £5.8million is generated elsewhere in the UK economy.
  
Founded in 1451, the University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world and was established for the benefit of the city and its people.

World Changing Glasgow: Our Economic Impact showed that the University, its staff and students, continues to help shape the economic social and cultural prosperity of the city and Scotland. It found:

• the University employs over 8,000 people, making it one of the Glasgow City Region's largest employers, providing 1% of all jobs within the region and 12% of all jobs within its education sector.
• 82% of its staff live within the Glasgow City Region, spending their wages locally and supporting demand for goods and services.
• 84% of its UK students are from Scotland and 54% of its Scottish undergraduate students are from the Glasgow City Region, with students attending from more than 140 different countries.
• its international student population has more than doubled in the past ten years.

The report also highlighted the role of two quantum technology-based projects as example of how publicly funded research expenditure generates “productivity spillovers” in other sectors: QuantIC and the MIRAGE consortium.

Quantum Imaging in Glasgow , collaborating for competitive advantage

The ambitious vision of QuantIC is to pioneer a family of multidimensional cameras operating across a range of wavelengths, time-scales, and length- scales, creating a new industrial landscape for imaging systems and their applications in the UK. Since QuantIC was created in December 2014, the hub has built on existing partnerships and industrial collaborations with global industry leaders to shape the research landscape with industry priorities.

The University of Glasgow’s world-leading research in optics, physics, and engineering made it the ideal location to house QuantIC and facilitate collaboration between interdisciplinary research teams. The University has internationally recognised leaders in quantum science, which has attracted a strong network of industry partners. QuantIC researchers also have access to the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC), a centre of technical expertise and equipment that has provided technology solutions to over 300 companies in 28 countries.

QuantIC has built a dedicated £3 million Innovation Space to facilitate academic and industrial collaborations by offering free use of optical laboratory and office space to SMEs, start-ups, and companies to support the development of the photonics sector. The Hub’s commitment to helping companies innovate is highlighted by the £4 million Partnership Resource Fund, which was set up to bring together industry with academic partners to develop new or enhanced products, services, processes, or increase their capability.

MIRAGE consortium

The £6 million MIRAGE consortium brought together four Scottish manufacturers with Professor Iain Thayne and Dr Matt Steer in the School of Engineering, supported by Scottish Enterprise and Scotland's Innovation Centre for Sensing and Imaging. The consortium aimed to place Scotland at the forefront of the £7 billion global sensors and imaging systems market, to deliver significant economic growth and onshore highly skilled research and manufacturing jobs from Asia. The initiative, the first of its kind in Scotland, was created to share knowledge and expertise, exchange ideas, and improve collaborative practices.

The four companies in the consortium - Cascade Technologies, Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd (GSS), Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global (CSTG), and Amethyst Research Ltd - utilised the semiconductor materials growth expertise of Dr Matt Steer. This allowed them to create cutting-edge mid-infrared sensors in high volumes with greater sensitivity, lower cost, reduced energy use, and a longer lifespan than existing products. The collaboration supported the production of materials integral to manufacturing a variety of goods that use sensors, ranging from asthma inhalers to infrared cameras.

MIRAGE has been responsible for over 40 new high skilled jobs, and it is expected to deliver a £56 million boost to the Scottish economy over 10 years. The partners of the consortium continue to operate in partnership activities and proposal building outside of the original MIRAGE project.

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First published: 28 October 2021