Rigetti Leads £3.5M UK Quantum Error Correction Initiative

Rigetti UK Limited has been selected to lead a £3.5 million Innovate UK Quantum Missions pilot project, in collaboration with Riverlane and the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), to advance quantum error correction (QEC) capabilities on superconducting quantum computers. The initiative will focus on upgrading Rigetti’s UK-based system to a 36-qubit quantum processing unit and integrating Riverlane’s QEC stack, aiming to demonstrate real-time error correction—a critical step toward universal, fault-tolerant quantum computing. This project addresses major challenges such as high error rates and classical control system bottlenecks that currently limit quantum computing performance. Riverlane will lead QEC experiments while the NQCC team will support system upgrades and quality assurance. The collaboration is expected to push the boundaries of current QEC metrics and bring practical, error-resistant quantum computing closer to reality. Market analysts view this technological advancement positively, noting high expectations for Rigetti’s future growth.