Executive Summary
AI, quantum technologies and high-performance computing as a structured area of strategic partnership between the UK and Italy.
This strategy highlights the opportunities in AI, quantum technologies (QT) and high-performance computing (HPC) as a structured area of strategic partnership between the UK and Italy. The UK brings depth in AI research and commercialisation, quantum science and applications, and emerging exascale plans; Italy contributes world-class supercomputers, converged AI–HPC–QT infrastructures, and strong domain expertise in energy, climate and materials. Yet collaboration levels across these fields, though meaningful, are often ad-hoc and small-scale, and constrained by factors including post-Brexit friction, including tuition fees for international students, and limited bilateral instruments.
Based on in-depth mixed methods research, the report recommends a focused set of actions: reciprocal access to flagship UK and Italian HPC and quantum platforms; co-branded “AI–QT–HPC” testbeds in priority sectors such as health, energy and security; scaled early-career mobility and targeted scholarships to rebuild people-to-people networks; pump-priming and Horizon-oriented seed funding to form competitive binational consortia; and a joint steering group to set 2–3-year priorities and monitor delivery.
Implemented over the next 2–3 years, these measures provide an actionable plan for shifting political declarations and research community ambitions into shared critical-tech capacity, strengthening Europe’s wider resilience, and positioning the UK–Italy axis as a visible leader in shaping AI, quantum and HPC governance and deployment.