Digital Catapult and NQCC Launch Third QTAP Cohort, Introducing Banki…

Digital Catapult and the National Quantum Computing Centre have launched a third cohort of their Quantum Technology Access Programme, expanding into banking and healthcare with 11 participants including NatWest, NHS Innovation, and specialist deeptech firms. Participants gain access to ORCA Computing's PT-2 photonic quantum computer and cloud simulation environments to develop quantum machine learning and optimisation applications across financial crime detection, rare disease diagnostics, transport, logistics, and semiconductor control. You now have documented use cases where quantum machine learning beats classical methods on real banking and clinical problems - and you have a hardware supplier (ORCA) and a path to proof. If you build supply chain optimisation, anomaly detection, or molecular screening tools, you can pilot against photonic quantum hardware for free, establish the performance differential, and lock in an early customer before the market realises quantum works.