The DOE Office of Science program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) announces its interest in entanglement management and control in transparent optical quantum communications networks. Recently, tremendous progress has been made in understanding how quantum information with its complex characterization can be geographically distributed to achieve extraordinary capabilities that are impossible using classical optical telecommunication networks. This process involves quantum entanglement, a complex and valuable but perishable resource in which the transmitted quantum information is encoded. Although the transmission of an entanglement state over a dedicated single-hop channel has been successfully demonstrated, the distribution of a large number (several thousand) of entangled states in multi-hop and multiuser mesh-topology quantum networks remains an open challenge.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFRL/AFOSR), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) this week announced a joint solicitation for three-year research grants in breakthrough quantum information science and technologies. Click here to learn more.

The NSF Quantum Interconnect Challenges for Transformational Advances in Quantum Systems (QuIC – TAQS) program is designed to support interdisciplinary teams that will explore highly innovative, original, and potentially transformative ideas for developing and applying quantum science, quantum computing, and quantum engineering in the specific area of quantum interconnects. Proposals should have the potential to deliver new concepts, new platforms, and/or new approaches that will implement the transfer of quantum states efficiently across platforms and over large length scales. Progress in the area of quantum interconnects will enable breakthroughs in quantum sensing, quantum communications, quantum simulations, and quantum computing systems. This Quantum Interconnect Challenges solicitation will support the process of translating such ideas into reality.

The National Science Foundation published NSF 21-033, “Advancing Quantum Education and Workforce Development.”

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) — The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently awarded 17 quantum information science grants, with a focus on basic research, to scientists and engineers at institutions around the globe. These awards were fast-tracked following a three-day virtual pitch competition held during the Million Dollar International Quantum U Tech Accelerator.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to provide $75 million for fundamental research in chemical and materials sciences aimed at advancing the important emerging field of Quantum Information Science (QIS). A wide-ranging multidisciplinary area of research, QIS is expected to lay the foundation for the next generation of computing and information processing, as well as an array of other innovative technologies in sensing and related applications. Click here to read more.

Funded at about $55M level, the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.

To expedite the advancement and innovation of quantum technologies, the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded $5.25 million to 23 small businesses during a first-of-its-kind virtual quantum collider pitch event June 15-16.

Several algorithms that would theoretically provide a significant speed-up when performed on a quantum computer over a classical computer require random access memory (RAM). A RAM enables quick retrieval, in any order, of data stored in a memory array. Unlike a classical RAM, the input and output registers of a quantum RAM (QRAM) use quantum bits rather than conventional bits, the memory array in a QRAM can be classical or quantum depending on the usage, and a QRAM can address a superposition of memory cells and return a superposition of the data. No such QRAM currently exists. The availability of a QRAM would enable implementation of various quantum algorithms and herald potentially ground-breaking capabilities impossible to achieve classically.

DOE SC hereby announces its interest in receiving applications from multi-institutional, multidisciplinary teams (requesting support between $10 and $25 million per year) to establish National Quantum Information Science Research Centers referred to in the rest of this announcement as “Centers.” The goal of this FOA is to select applications that will accelerate the transformational advances in basic science and quantum-based technology needed to develop world-leading capabilities in Quantum Information Science (QIS), and in support of the National Quantum Initiative Act. Read more…