NSF Extends Quantum Sensing Program With Five-Year $37.5M Award

Insider Brief

• The U.S. National Science Foundation has renewed the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering with $37.5 million over five years to advance quantum sensing for biological research.
• Led by the University of Chicago, NSF QuBBE will develop quantum nanoprobes, protein-based quantum sensors, entanglement-based sensing methods and in vivo measurement techniques.
• The renewed program will also expand quantum education and workforce initiatives through partnerships with Chicago State University and the University of Illinois Chicago.

Press release – The U.S. National Science Foundation has renewed the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (NSF QuBBE) with a $37.5 million, five-year investment to advance quantum sensing technologies that can reveal biological processes difficult or impossible to observe with conventional tools.

The renewal will move NSF QuBBE into its next phase: advancing quantum sensing from proof-of-principle measurements toward robust tools for investigating biological systems. Led by the University of Chicago in partnership with Chicago State University, the University of Illinois Chicago, Harvard University and other collaborators, NSF QuBBE brings together quantum scientists, engineers, chemists, biologists, and physicians.