NSF Invests $290M in Eight Quantum Research Institutes

Insider Brief

• The U.S. National Science Foundation is providing more than $290 million to eight Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes focused on advancing quantum computing, sensing, networking and related technologies.
• The eight institutes will each receive roughly $28 million to $37 million over five years and cover areas including fault-tolerant computing, quantum error correction, quantum networking, quantum sensing and quantum simulation.
• The program also brings together researchers across 36 higher-education institutions in 19 states with federal agencies and more than 30 companies, while funding education and workforce development programs.

Press release – Understanding and wielding the quantum properties of nature is the ambitious objective of eight research institutes that will collectively receive more than $290 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The investment is an expansion of the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes program, which NSF created in 2020 as part of the agency’s strategy to fulfill the 2018 “National Quantum Initiative Act.”

Of the eight institutes, three are newly formed. The other five were established with previous NSF funding and will receive renewed funding from NSF to continue their work. Each institute will receive between about $28 and $37 million over five years and is helmed by researchers in quantum information science.