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A cutting-edge £2.5 million facility that will help secure next-generation communications against cyber threats officially opened at Heriot-Watt University’s Research Park in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Quantum Communications Hub Optical Ground Station (HOGS) represents a major leap in the UK’s space and quantum capabilities. Using advanced laser technology to communicate with satellites, it shifts from radio-frequency links to optical channels, offering higher data rates and encryption based on the laws of physics rather than algorithms.
"This facility represents a quantum leap for UK communications security. With cyber threats evolving daily, we urgently need to create networks that are secured by the laws of physics."
— Dr Ross Donaldson, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
HOGS will soon integrate single-photon detectors and adaptive-optics systems to exchange quantum-encrypted keys with orbiting satellites, laying the groundwork for an ultra-secure quantum internet. Beyond encryption, the facility’s 4.5 m dome houses a 70 cm telescope and a secondary 40 cm telescope—both equipped for visible and infrared tracking—to monitor space debris in polar orbits more effectively than equatorial stations.
"Quantum secure communications will still protect data – for governments, businesses and individuals – in a future, fully quantum-enabled, world."
— Professor Tim Spiller, Director of the Quantum Communications Hub
Integrated into Heriot-Watt’s dark-fibre network, HOGS provides a living laboratory for testing urban-to-intercontinental optical links and future 6G technologies. Scotland’s space sector—already supporting 8,000 jobs and generating £880 million annually—gains a world-class testbed without the need for multi-million-pound infrastructure investments.
"HOGS helps the UK to remain at the very forefront of quantum networking. Its location at Heriot-Watt, with direct fibre-optic links to our world-class quantum laboratories, will enable a range of ground-breaking experiments and quantum communications demonstrations, which were not previously possible."
— Professor Gerald Buller, Director of the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub
The station also serves as an educational resource: outreach programmes will invite local schoolchildren to observe satellite tracking in real time, while undergraduates and PhD students gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge quantum technologies.
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