Quantum News Nexus

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) this week unveiled $625 million in funding to renew its five National Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers, some positive news from the federal government for the quantum sector as the industry continues to hold out hope for something potentially more impactful.

This is not to say that nearly two-thirds of a billion dollars is chump change for the research institutions involved, but right now the business side of the quantum sector is anxiously awaiting updates on some other items, such as a long-rumored Trump administration Executive Order on quantum, or a move by the federal government to trade funding for stakes in quantum firms.

The former of those two items is something that has been talked about recently as if it were a done deal, yet no EO has arrived. The latter of the two is something that reportedly was being discussed and that US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Paul Dabbar seemed to confirm is on the table when he spoke at the Chicago Quantum Summit earlier this week. Yet, it is hard to see that happening amidst an ongoing federal government shutdown.

So, for now, the quantum sector is left to twiddle its thumbs, and scan the earnings of its publicly-traded members (IonQ today, D-Wave Quantum tomorrow, and more next week) for good news to sustain the hype that has been steadily growing around the industry in recent months.

But, again, not trying to say the DOE news is not important! The QIS centers originally were established under the National Quantum Initiative Act (NQIA) passed by Congress and signed into law in 2018 by President Trump during his first term. 

The renewal of funding for these centers comes as the quantum industry also is awaiting a renewal of the NQIA itself, which still has not happened and has not been re-introduced in the current session of Congress despite some momentum last year.

In any case, the research funding push, according to a DOE press release, is intended to help align “quantum research enterprise with national priorities, [by] focusing resources on advancing critical R&D across the American QIS, strengthening the quantum innovation ecosystem, accelerating discoveries that power next-generation technologies, and securing American leadership in quantum computing, hardware, and applications.”

Dario Gil, U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science and a key quantum figure in his own right as a researcher and former IBM exec, added, “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. 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.”

Center renewals and their areas of focus include:

• Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) – Brookhaven National Laboratory will advance quantum computing and sensing by improving materials used in superconducting and plasma-grown, diamond-based quantum devices and developing modular approaches for superconducting and neutral-atom systems.
• Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) – Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will scale quantum devices based on superconducting microwave cavities, developing new methods of refrigeration and technologies for connecting many quantum processors to lay the groundwork for quantum data centers.
• Q-NEXT– Argonne National Laboratory will advance algorithms and chip components to scale quantum operations on the same chip and across different labs and cities, preserving entanglement and prototyping next-generation quantum sensors.
• Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA) – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will enable large-scale quantum computers through improved error correction using neutral atom, ion, and superconducting circuits to tackle DOE grand challenges in fundamental physics, chemistry, and emergent quantum phenomena.
• Quantum Science Center (QSC) – Oak Ridge National Laboratory will pioneer quantum-accelerated high-performance computing, developing open-source software for quantum-classical workflows that accelerate scientific advancements across multiple disciplines.

But, there is also a lot of fine print:

“Total funding is $625 million for awards lasting up to 5 years in duration, with $125 million in Fiscal Year 2025 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations… Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.”

So, yeah, these centers are likely to get more money, at least this year, unless things don’t fall into place–and when has that ever happened? It sounds like the rest of the funding could depend on the NQIA’s renewal by Congress or some other move by legislators.

This is good news for quantum at a time when it is just maybe starting to reach a bit for something to prop up its recent blissful feelings about itself, but as with much else regarding this particular technology sector, we need to try very hard not to expect too much too quickly.

Image by DC Studio from freepik

Quantum News Nexus is a new site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.