The King's Foundation and FormationQ Launch "Harmonious Urban Growth" Programme to Help Cities Plan Sustainable Expansion Using Quantum Optimisation LONDON and AUSTIN, Texas, May 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The King's Foundation and FormationQ today announced a new partnership to showcase how towns and cities across the Commonwealth can grow sustainably using quantum technology. The partnership, entitled Harmonious Urban Growth: A Health-Optimised Expansion Framework Using Quantum Methods, is a three-year programme designed to help cities grow sustainably while improving the health of people and the planet. The initiative will incorporate advanced computational modelling, including quantum optimisation enabled by trapped-ion systems from IonQ, to explore new methods for planning complex urban systems and sustainable town planning. Today, around 1.3 billion people live in unplanned settlements, and that number is expected to grow by well over one billion more in the next 30 years. When urban expansion occurs without planning frameworks, infrastructure and public services can struggle to keep up with population growth, creating long-term challenges for mobility, public health, and environmental resilience. Early planning helps cities become more livable, walkable and sustainable. In many of the places growing most rapidly, professional planning resources are limited, yet the need to organise urban expansion has never been greater. The Harmonious Urban Growth programme builds on The King's Foundation's Rapid Planning Toolkit, a practical methodology developed with Commonwealth partners following the Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation (CHOGM 2022). The Toolkit enables mayors, planning authorities and built-environment professionals to establish clear frameworks guiding responsible expansion before informal settlement patterns become difficult to reverse. The Toolkit was piloted in Bo, Sierra Leone, where it helped local authorities and community stakeholders avoid development in flood-prone wetlands while identifying walkable areas and infrastructure corridors for future expansion. The three-year programme will be supported by UK urban planning consultants Space Syntax,