(August 31, 2023) On August 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $24 million in funding for three collaborative projects in quantum network research.

(May 2, 2023) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Innovation Office (I2O) is sponsoring a Proposers Day to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of the anticipated Quantum Augmented Network (QuANET) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). DARPA’s QuANET program will develop a hybrid quantum-classical communication network architecture to enable quantum enhancements to security and covertness on today’s classical networks. The program seeks to augment existing software infrastructure and network protocols with quantum properties to mitigate some of the attack vectors that are pervasive on classical (non-quantum) networks.

(April 26, 2023) The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program is sponsoring a Basic Research Needs (BRN) Workshop in Quantum Computing and Quantum Networking.

(December 19, 2022) Last Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced $4.6 Million in awards for the Advanced Scientific Computing Research – Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (ASCR-RENEW) program, whose goal is to increase participation of underrepresented groups in the quantum computing and networking workforce and to increase participation of underrepresented institutions in quantum computing and networking workforce training. This pilot program is intended to leverage ASCR’s unique national laboratory infrastructure and user facilities to provide training and research opportunities for students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty from underrepresented groups and at institutions that are currently underrepresented in the ASCR portfolio such as non-R1 institutions of higher education and minority serving institutions (MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

(August 19, 2021) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $61 million in funding for infrastructure and research projects to advance quantum information science (QIS).  Advances in QIS have the potential to enable new forms of computing, simulation, communication, and sensing that can advance breakthroughs needed to combat the climate crisis and strengthen America’s competitiveness.

(August 16. 2021) DOE releases Request For Information (RFI) : Access to Quantum System. In support of a congressional mandate in the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2021, DOE has released the FRI to help in their effort to  “develop a roadmap to provide researchers access to quantum systems so as to enhance the U.S. quantum research enterprise, stimulate the fledgling U.S. quantum computing industry, educate the future quantum computing workforce, and accelerate advancement of quantum computer capabilities.”

(May 24, 2021) The Congressional Research Service has released a Defense Primer on Quantum Technology. See the report here.

In high-end 21^st century communications, information travels in the form of a stream of light pulses typically traveling through fiber optic cables. Each pulse can be as faint as a single photon, the smallest possible unit (quantum) of light. The speed at which such systems can operate depends critically on how fast and how accurately detectors on the receiving end can discriminate and process those photons.