(December 23, 2024) On January 31, 2025, DARPA will host an in-person Proposers Day at the DARPA Conference Center in Arlington, VA. The Proposers Day is an opportunity to learn more about the anticipated Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program vision, foster collaboration among stakeholders, address questions, and promote teaming arrangements for research and development.

(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.

(March 24, 2022) Today, the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science (SCQIS) released the strategic plan for “Bringing Quantum Sensors to Fruition.” Quantum sensing technologies have already been hugely beneficial to society, for example, with the Global Position System (GPS) utilizing atomic clocks, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) leveraging nuclear spin control for medical imaging. There are also near-term opportunities for new quantum sensors to become fieldable technologies, with similar transformative impacts. However, the long technological development arc from basic research to a commercialized product requires focused, substantial, and sustained efforts. Along with the wide application space and varied end-user requirements, maturing quantum sensing technologies requires a long-term strategy to align government agency priorities and unite private stakeholders.

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER), through its Bioimaging Research effort, announced its interest in receiving applications to advance fundamental research or use-inspired technologies of new bioimaging or sensing approaches that exploit quantum phenomena. BER seeks to advance our understanding of bioimaging by using new quantum science-enabled areas that could resolve limitations of classical optics including resolution and detection limits, signal-to-noise ratio, limitations on temporal dynamics, long term signal stability, sample photodamage and limited penetration, or selective biomolecule sensing. Fundamental research concepts and use-inspired, early prototype research are needed to realize quantum-enabled bioimaging and sensing.

(October 7, 2021) Earlier this week, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) convened industry stakeholders from across the country to discuss how quantum computers and quantum sensors will benefit American society. Challenges and opportunities for increasing United States competitiveness in this critical industry of the future were also discussed.

(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.

On March 2, 2021, the Department of Defense (DoD), through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), launched a $7.5 million Center of Excellence in Advanced Quantum Sensing (COE-AQS) at Delaware State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The COE-AQS will stimulate research and innovation leading to the development of novel quantum sensing technologies and methodologies. The COE-AQS research will focus on realizing entanglement-enhanced quantum sensing in the form of spin-squeezing in atomic clocks and magnetometers using cold atom platforms. The Center was awarded through the OUSD(R&E)’s HBCU and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Research and Education Program and is administered by the Army Research Laboratory.