Applications
Critical technologies are easy to admire in the abstract. They become genuinely compelling when you see where they land in the real world. These technologies already shape the world around us in ways most people never notice, from the chip that authenticates a contactless payment to the fibre carrying data beneath a city street. What is coming next is more striking still. Researchers and companies working at the frontier of Critical Technologies are developing applications that will change how we diagnose illness, secure communications, navigate cities, monitor infrastructure, and protect the environment. Some of these are years away from widespread deployment. Others are already moving from pilot projects into real-world use. What they share is a common foundation - advances in the underlying science of light, matter, and quantum mechanics that are only now mature enough to translate into practical tools. Critical Technologies are not a single industry or a single use case - they are a set of capabilities that cut across almost every sector of the economy.
Explore key areas of application for Critical Technologies
The supercluster allows us to build the critical mass that we need to share facilities and infrastructure - to make more efficient use of those, to tackle technology challenges for societal benefit.
Professor Jennifer Hastie - Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde
Founded in 2021 as the first-ever joint spinout from the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, Neuranics has established itself as a deep-tech semiconductor company working on the future of human-machine interaction through its Tunnelling Magnetoresistance (TMR) magnetic sensing technology. Its ultra-sensitive, low-power sensors detect tiny magnetic signals from the human body - enabling precise tracking of muscle activity for gesture recognition and cardiac signals, all without skin contact.
In April 2025, the company raised $8 million in a round led by Blackfinch Ventures, with participation from Archangels and continued backing from Par Equity, the University of Glasgow, and Old College Capital. The funding is supporting a major expansion: Neuranics plans to double its workforce from 20 to 40 people, as it moves towards commercial partnerships with Tier-1 semiconductor and XR manufacturers in Silicon Valley and beyond. In a significant development for the city, Neuranics has been shortlisted for support through the £160 million Glasgow City Region Investment Zone. In partnership with Kelvin Nanotechnology and the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre, the project would create the UK's first facility dedicated to full end-to-end magnetic sensor fabrication and assembly. The company has also picked up a CES Innovation Award for its magnetomyography sensor.
A multi-award-winning technology company based in Glasgow, Neutral Wireless has over a decade of expertise in Software-Defined Radio, shared spectrum, FPGA development and wireless technologies. The company specialises in highly configurable, portable private 5G networks for live broadcast, venues and stadiums, manufacturing, defence and public safety applications. It originated as a spinout from the software-defined radio research group at the University of Strathclyde, and retains close ties with the Glasgow City Innovation District.
The company's track record is genuinely global. Neutral Wireless has deployed high-profile private networks for the Coronation of King Charles and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. More recently, it partnered with Haivision and ITN for private 5G live broadcast coverage of the London New Year's Eve Fireworks. On the accolades front, the company won two awards at the UKTIN Future Networks Awards - including the Future Networks Award for Start-up and Spin-out Success, and the Ecosystem Excellence award for Project ON-SIDE, a DSIT-funded initiative led by Cisco with partners including the BBC, Scottish Wireless, the University of Glasgow and Glasgow City Council. Neutral Wireless also exhibited at MWC Barcelona 2026, showcasing live flying private 5G deployments in the GSMA Airport of the Future showcase.
A multi-award-winning technology company based in Glasgow, Neutral Wireless has over a decade of expertise in Software-Defined Radio, shared spectrum, FPGA development and wireless technologies. The company specialises in highly configurable, portable private 5G networks for live broadcast, venues and stadiums, manufacturing, defence and public safety applications. It originated as a spinout from the software-defined radio research group at the University of Strathclyde, and retains close ties with the Glasgow City Innovation District.
The company's track record is genuinely global. Neutral Wireless has deployed high-profile private networks for the Coronation of King Charles and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. More recently, it partnered with Haivision and ITN for private 5G live broadcast coverage of the London New Year's Eve Fireworks. On the accolades front, the company won two awards at the UKTIN Future Networks Awards - including the Future Networks Award for Start-up and Spin-out Success, and the Ecosystem Excellence award for Project ON-SIDE, a DSIT-funded initiative led by Cisco with partners including the BBC, Scottish Wireless, the University of Glasgow and Glasgow City Council. Neutral Wireless also exhibited at MWC Barcelona 2026, showcasing live flying private 5G deployments in the GSMA Airport of the Future showcase.
Spun out of the University of Glasgow in 2025, Quantcore operates from the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre, designing, manufacturing and testing the superconducting processors, resonators and sensors that sit at the heart of quantum computers and advanced sensing systems. The company holds a significant competitive advantage: it is the only company in the UK manufacturing niobium-based components - a material that can operate at higher temperatures than the aluminium used by most global competitors, reducing energy consumption and improving scalability for customers including UK national laboratories.
In February 2026, Quantcore raised £2.5m in seed funding in a round co-led by PXN Ventures, Blackfinch Ventures and Scottish Enterprise, with additional investment from Quantum Exponential and STAC. The funding will support team growth from four to twelve people over the next 18 months. Beyond computing, the company's quantum sensors open up applications in secure communications and high-precision medical imaging - with potential implications for neuroscience, early disease detection and secure infrastructure.
A University of Glasgow spinout, Vector Photonics is focused on the development and high-volume manufacture of Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers (PCSELs) - a class of laser diode hailed as the biggest breakthrough in semiconductor laser research in three decades. PCSELs combine the high output power of edge-emitting lasers with the surface emission and speed of VCSELs, making them easy to package and incorporate into electronics assemblies - with advantages in data rate, wavelength and power performance.
The company has raised over £6m in funding to date, with investors including Clean Growth Fund, Scottish Enterprise, Foresight WAE Technology and the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund. In June 2024, Vector Photonics received £1.67m in equity investment alongside £1.27m in additional research funding - including a collaboration with the University of Glasgow to develop gallium nitride material processing, and an SBRI-funded project for free-space optics. In a landmark demonstration in March 2026, the company transmitted data across the River Clyde between the Glasgow Science Centre and the Clydeside Distillery - the first public demonstration of PCSEL technology for optical communication outside a laboratory setting. Target markets span next-generation datacentres, AI infrastructure, LiDAR and additive manufacturing.
Weeteq is a Glasgow-based deep tech company developing circuit-level artificial intelligence for power and control systems. The company's flagship product, Ultra Edge, embeds AI and machine learning directly into the circuits of motor drives and power inverters, delivering real-time performance optimisation, predictive maintenance, and torque transient control. Unlike conventional approaches, Ultra Edge® generates around 100 times less data than big-data sensor deployments while unlocking operational insights previously considered inaccessible. Target sectors include automotive, industrial automation, utilities, and grid infrastructure. The technology suite spans embedded software, silicon solutions, modules, and enterprise software — and is backed by four granted patents.
The company is a member of Silicon Catalyst, the US-based global semiconductor incubator, and has received access to Arm's Flexible Access programme. Weeteq has showcased at major international events including MWC Barcelona, Embedded World Nuremberg, and the 2024 Global Corporate Venturing Symposium in London.
Looking ahead, Weeteq is targeting further growth in international markets — evidenced by the establishment of a dual-entity corporate structure — while continuing to develop next-generation embedded AI capabilities for the industries underpinning Net Zero transition.
LumiAIres is a Glasgow-based deep tech company developing neuromorphic photonic processors — chips that run AI computations using light rather than electrons. The core technology replaces conventional silicon-based compute with photonic inference, enabling AI workloads to run at a fraction of the energy required by today's GPU architectures. The company claims energy reductions of up to 90% for targeted tasks. Designed to augment rather than replace existing systems, the chips offload specific AI workloads while remaining portable and solar-compatible for edge and sovereign deployments.
As an early-stage venture, LumiAIres has received programme support through Techscaler (delivered by CodeBase), including participation in the Silicon Valley cohort, which proved pivotal in the founders' transition from academic researchers to venture builders. The company is actively pursuing partnerships with hyperscalers, semiconductor manufacturers, cloud providers, and academic labs to validate and scale its processors in real-world environments.
LumiAIres anticipates a product timeline of approximately three years, targeting markets spanning data centre AI inference, edge autonomy in constrained environments, and on-orbit satellite processing — positioning the company firmly within Glasgow City Region's critical technologies supercluster.
Weeteq is a Glasgow-based deep tech company developing circuit-level artificial intelligence for power and control systems. The company's flagship product, Ultra Edge, embeds AI and machine learning directly into the circuits of motor drives and power inverters, delivering real-time performance optimisation, predictive maintenance, and torque transient control. Unlike conventional approaches, Ultra Edge® generates around 100 times less data than big-data sensor deployments while unlocking operational insights previously considered inaccessible. Target sectors include automotive, industrial automation, utilities, and grid infrastructure. The technology suite spans embedded software, silicon solutions, modules, and enterprise software — and is backed by four granted patents.
The company is a member of Silicon Catalyst, the US-based global semiconductor incubator, and has received access to Arm's Flexible Access programme. Weeteq has showcased at major international events including MWC Barcelona, Embedded World Nuremberg, and the 2024 Global Corporate Venturing Symposium in London.
Looking ahead, Weeteq is targeting further growth in international markets — evidenced by the establishment of a dual-entity corporate structure — while continuing to develop next-generation embedded AI capabilities for the industries underpinning Net Zero transition.
LumiAIres is a Glasgow-based deep tech company developing neuromorphic photonic processors — chips that run AI computations using light rather than electrons. The core technology replaces conventional silicon-based compute with photonic inference, enabling AI workloads to run at a fraction of the energy required by today's GPU architectures. The company claims energy reductions of up to 90% for targeted tasks, with prototype chips solving problems at 10–40 watts — compared to 300 watts on equivalent GPU hardware. Designed to augment rather than replace existing systems, the chips offload specific AI workloads while remaining portable and solar-compatible for edge and sovereign deployments.
As an early-stage venture, LumiAIres has received programme support through Techscaler (delivered by CodeBase), including participation in the Silicon Valley cohort, which proved pivotal in the founders' transition from academic researchers to venture builders. The company is actively pursuing partnerships with hyperscalers, semiconductor manufacturers, cloud providers, and academic labs to validate and scale its processors in real-world environments.
LumiAIres anticipates a product timeline of approximately three years, targeting markets spanning data centre AI inference, edge autonomy in constrained environments, and on-orbit satellite processing — positioning the company firmly within Glasgow City Region's critical technologies supercluster.