UK Quantum Hackathon 2025 - call for use cases

The National Quantum Computing Centre’s UK Quantum Hackathon 2025 will take place at the University of Edinburgh from 21-23 July. This event, part of the NQCC’s SparQ programme, aims to explore the potential of quantum computing, nurture talent, and grow the user community.

The event brings together teams of aspiring coders with industry mentors to tackle practical challenges and develop solutions using quantum computing. The hackathon offers students and early career researchers hands-on experience using quantum algorithms and coding with quantum computers.

We are now seeking innovative use cases for this year’s hackathon from businesses and organisations in the public sector, third sector, and higher education. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to work alongside a dedicated team to develop and test their use case solutions on quantum computers during the event.

The NQCC’s annual UK Quantum Hackathon aims to demonstrate how quantum computing can solve real-world problems by bringing together talented people from across the value chain, with the objectives to:

• Connect the UK quantum ecosystem through networking and collaboration throughout the event
• Understand the opportunities and limitations of quantum computing by demonstrating the current capabilities of the technology
• Explore a broad range of use cases for quantum computing
• Enable aspiring practitioners to develop their quantum computing programming and applications skills
• Showcase the breadth of technology available currently and enable a broad range of users to access these tools

In recognition and celebration of the UN’s declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, this year’s hackathon will highlight applications of quantum computing for societal benefit. We are particularly encouraging submissions that align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Early feedback opportunity: Submit your use case for review by 16 May to get feedback on the suitability of your proposed use case, technical guidance in developing your use case, and guidance in aligning your use case with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Full submission deadline: 30 May 2025.

End-user organisations are welcome to submit multiple use cases. Depending on the level of engagement, a selection process may be used to determine which use cases to take forward (please see selection criteria below). However, the NQCC endeavours to include the majority of use cases. You will receive confirmation on whether your use case has been selected by 12th June. If your use case is not selected for this hackathon, it may be selected (with your permission) for future hackathon style events.

Successful organisations must provide one to two mentors per use case for the in-person event on 21st and 22nd July and optionally 23rd July. All costs associated with administration, meals and the venue hire will be covered by the NQCC. NQCC also request that after the event end-user mentors provide a short (200-300 words) technical summary of their team’s work to form part of the hackathon technical report, and complete the NQCC’s feedback form following the event.