Department of Energy announces $625 million for quantum research centers
The Department of Energy announced $625 million in funding on Tuesday to renovate five quantum research centers created under the first Trump administration.
Each research center is scheduled to receive $125 million in funding over the next five years, as they study different aspects of quantum science and technology, which are based on the principles of quantum mechanics.
This includes the Joint Design Center for Quantum Feature at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Center for Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Q-NEXT at Argonne National Laboratory, the Quantum Systems Accelerator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Center for Quantum Science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“President Trump has positioned America to lead the world in quantum science and technology, and today we have before us a new frontier of scientific discovery,” Dario Gil, Undersecretary for Science, said in a statement.
He continued: “Achievements in improving the quality of information have the potential to revolutionize the ways we feel, communicate and calculate, launching entirely new technologies and industries.”
Quantum research received a boost during President Trump’s first term with the passage of the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018, which allocated $1.2 billion to newly established research centers and other quantum efforts.
The National Quantum Initiative program underlying this approach has been approved through 2029. However, several provisions of the law expired in 2023.
A bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), introduced legislation last December to reauthorize the law and allocate $2.7 billion in federal funding for quantitative research. No such bill has been introduced into this Congress.
