About Us

A wheel with QAMSS at the centre detailing the areas the initiative aims to bring together

Quantum and Advanced Materials Technologies for a Sustainable Society (QAMSS) is a Strategic Research Initiative at the University of Cambridge, bringing together researchers from across the University to explore how emerging technologies can help address the challenges of a sustainable future.

Strategic Research Initiatives are University-wide programmes that unite expertise from across different schools and disciplines that might otherwise work separately around major research challenges. They provide a framework for developing new research partnerships, strengthening existing networks and building the capacity to pursue ambitious, large-scale research.

QAMSS brings this approach to the opportunities and challenges presented by quantum technologies, advanced materials and sustainability. Its community spans quantum science and technology, advanced materials, microelectronics, photonics, engineering, physics and chemistry, alongside expertise in sustainability, biology, medicine, business, the humanities, social sciences and the arts.

A key role for QAMSS is to connect these communities and create opportunities for new collaborations. While Cambridge has considerable strength across these areas, expertise and activity can often sit within separate research communities. QAMSS provides a shared platform to bring these strengths together, helping researchers identify new opportunities, develop interdisciplinary ideas and tackle challenges that cannot be addressed by a single discipline.

Four jigsaw pieces fitting together representing "Challenge", "Collaboration", "Influence" and "Growth"

QAMSS supports this through lectures, workshops, networking, seed funding and other collaborative activities, as well as by helping researchers develop strategic partnerships and large-scale research funding opportunities. It also provides a point of connection between Cambridge researchers and external partners, including industry, international research organisations, policymakers and funding bodies.

The initiative takes a broad view of the opportunities and implications of emerging technologies. Alongside scientific and technological development, QAMSS explores questions around sustainability, ethics, policy, governance, business and society. It also creates opportunities for dialogue between science and the arts, exploring how new technologies can influence creative practice and how artistic perspectives can offer new ways of questioning and understanding technological change.

QAMSS is therefore not a single research group or discipline. It is a University-wide platform for connecting people, expertise and ideas, helping Cambridge work more collaboratively and collectively on the technologies and challenges that will shape a sustainable future.