(August 24, 2023) Eighteen new projects are part of the National Science Foundation’s strategy to realize the scientific and technological advances called for in the National Science and Technology Council report, Bringing Quantum Sensors to Fruition, and the National Quantum Initiative Act.

(June 23, 2023) The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Research Cooperation. The MOU provides a framework to encourage collaboration between U.S. and Swiss research communities and sets out the principles by which jointly supported activities might be developed. The MOU provides for an international collaboration arrangement whereby U.S. researchers may receive funding from NSF and Swiss researchers may receive funding from SNSF.

(June 8, 2023) A new report from the National Academies, with support from DOE and NSF, looks at the promise of using chemistry to push past current limits of QIS, and how QIS, in turn, can solve problems in chemistry. In particular, well-designed molecular qubits could open a new class of memory storage that would revolutionize computing, strengthen encryption, and enhance quantum sensing, among other applications. The report identifies opportunities in three areas of QIS and chemistry research; (1) design and synthesis of molecular qubit systems; (2) measurement and control of molecular quantum systems; and (3) experimental and computational approaches for scaling qubit design and function. The report details targeted research priorities in each area to advance the field in the near future.

(May 3, 2023) The National Science Foundation issued a Request for Information to gather insights for the development of an investment roadmap for its Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). The “CHIPS and Science Act” tasks the TIP Directorate with developing a roadmap to guide investment decisions in use-inspired and translational research over a three-year time frame to advance U.S. competitiveness and develop the U.S. workforce in 10 critical technology areas and to address societal, national and geostrategic challenges. Quantum information science and technology is one of the critical technology focus areas.

(October 6, 2022) From October 28-29, 2022, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is hosting a virtual Workshop on Software-Hardware Co-Design for Quantum Computing. This workshop will function as a hub to spur a large, synergistic, and convergent effort for building a common technological ecosystem that quantum-enabled technologies and classical technologies can live together for mutual benefit and progress in the long term. In this workshop, experts from both industry and academia will gather together and discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed for an end-to-end quantum computing infrastructure. In particular, we advocate the importance of taking a computer engineering perspective. We envision that classic computer engineering techniques (at both software and hardware levels) have the potential to enable transformative scientific and industrial progress for quantum computing. The key is to figure out the grand challenges in the new quantum context. This workshop is to help the computer engineering community better understand and focus on these grand challenges rather than incremental changes, form a stronger collaboration, and propose transformative ideas to achieve significant progress in quantum computing. To this end, experts will be invited to get together to report the latest research progress and discuss their visions of the critical challenges that need to be addressed in the near future and how to tackle these challenges in a synergistic manner.