Edinburgh’s Quantum Software Lab celebrates growth with Quantum Fringe festival and industry workshops

# What happened

# QSL: scale and funding direction

QSL now hosts more than 70 researchers working across applications, algorithms and underpinning theory and software. The lab is positioned to lead a £20 million project intended to produce tools, methods and systems to make quantum computing useful in practice.

# Fringe: structure and purpose

Modelled on Edinburgh's Fringe festival, the Quantum Fringe ran 16 events spanning technical workshops, public-facing programming and industry-facing sessions. The programme was designed to involve a broad cross-section of the quantum community: academics, government and industry scientists, start-ups and students.

# Technical workshops and cross-sector dialogue

• Authentication for quantum communications: A two-day event run by the Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN) research hub focused on the authentication requirements needed to secure future quantum links. The format mixed tutorials for a broad audience with informal networking to help form research–business connections.

• Defence-sector integration: A QCi3-organized workshop encouraged direct interaction between academics and industry experts to explore defence applications and integration challenges for quantum computing.

# Industry and start-up engagement

# Tone and purpose of the events

Organisers framed the Quantum Fringe as a shared programme: every event was intended to be participatory and to reduce barriers between sectors. The combination of tutorials, technical talks and informal networking aimed to make specialist discussions accessible to a wider range of contributors while generating new collaborations.

Fringe highlighted active, practical work across three broad needs for near-term quantum progress: secure communications (authentication), error management (QEC) and measurable hardware advancement (verification and benchmarking). The events signalled an emphasis on building tools and processes that link research outputs to industry use-cases rather than focusing solely on theoretical advances.

# Bottom line

The QSL used the festival to demonstrate capacity, convening power and a pipeline toward applied quantum software and systems. With a sizeable researcher base, NQCC partnership and a planned multi-million-pound project, the lab is aligning technical research with industry and public engagement through targeted workshops and collaborative events.