Energy allocates $625M for national labs’ quantum research
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Funding for research centers at five national laboratories is intended to support U.S. advancements in quantum information sciences and technology.
The Department of Energy is renewing funding for a series of research centers focused on quantum information sciences and technology, part of the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act signed by President Donald Trump during his first term in office.
Agency officials confirmed on Tuesday that $625 million in federal funding will be allocated to revitalize the five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. The centers will focus on expanding different forms of quantum information technology research and development and individually work to advance quantum technology applications.
The hubs are all headquartered within larger national laboratory complexes: the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage at Brookhaven National Lab; the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center at Femi National Accelerator Laboratory; Q-NEXT at Argonne National Laboratory; the Quantum Systems Accelerator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“President Trump positioned America to lead the world in quantum science and technology and today, a new frontier of scientific discovery lies before us. Breakthroughs in QIS have the potential to revolutionize the ways we sense, communicate, and compute, sparking entirely new technologies and industries,” Energy Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said in a press release. “The renewal of DOE’s National Quantum Information Science Research Centers will empower America to secure our advantage in pioneering the next generation of scientific and engineering advancements needed for this technology.”
The $625 million in award funding will last for up to five years. These five awards were selected through a competitive peer review process conducted by the DOE National Laboratory Program Announcement for the National Quantum Information Science Research Centers.
The National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 expired in 2023, and a reauthorization bill remains pending in Congress. The Trump administration has been keen to spur more innovation in the quantum technology realm, and officials are drafting a series of executive actions that focus on agency migrations to a post-quantum cryptographic standard.