The U.S. National Science Foundation has selected five new teams to design experimental quantum technologies, from networks that can ferry fragile quantum information across long distances to sensors that can measure faint properties inside a single cell. The teams will collectively receive $20 million from NSF and join four others that NSF selected in 2025. This effort is part of the agency's broader support for the Administration's vision of strengthening U.S. leadership in quantum, as called for in the recent Executive Order on Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation.
NSF is investing in the five teams through its National Quantum Virtual Laboratory program. Now in the design stage, the laboratory aims to provide researchers anywhere in the U.S. with access to specialized resources for developing useful quantum technologies. Each of the five teams will receive $4 million over two years to refine their development plans and prepare for the implementation phase.
Their projects will help build scientific testing and evaluation capabilities to integrate three broad areas of quantum science and technology - sensors, networks and computers - in a unified system that demonstrates functional quantum technologies for real-world applications.
"Across academia, government and industry, America has an unmatched array of brilliant people working on quantum science and tech with incredible potential to improve our quality of life," says Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director. "But too often they are working independently in silos. We need to bring their talent and ideas together, and NSF is uniquely positioned to make that happen."
The five newly selected teams embody this collaborative philosophy and include researchers and other personnel spanning institutions of higher education in 20 states. The teams' federal partners include the U.S. Department of War's Air Force Research Laboratory, multiple U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories, NASA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. More than two dozen U.S. companies are partnering with the projects to help develop and scale up quantum technologies that emerge from the research. The participating companies include Boeing, Honeywell, IonQ, NVIDIA, Quantinuum and others.
NSF is also supporting the teams' education and training activities to help grow and expand the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce in the U.S. Those activities include co-creating evidence-based quantum science educational curriculum with K-12 teachers to use in classrooms. Some researchers will also participate directly in classrooms and other school activities to serve as role models and encourage young people to pursue a career in STEM.
The NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory is also part of NSF's strategy to fulfill the vision of the "National Quantum Initiative Act" passed by Congress in 2018. NSF expects to select the first teams to transition from the design to the implementation phase later in 2026, subject to appropriations from Congress.
The five design projects and teams are:
Accelerating Fault-Tolerant Quantum Logic
The team will build fault-tolerant quantum computing logic by unifying the design of error-correcting code, hardware and algorithms into a single, cohesive development process.
Attosecond Synchronized Photonic Entanglement Network
The team will design a high-fidelity quantum networking system approximately 100,000 times faster than current quantum networks and able to carry information over distances of about 60 miles.
Distributed-Entanglement Quantum Sensing of Chemical Properties
The team will design new types of sensors, including sensors made of protein-based qubits, that use the quantum properties of entanglement and coherence and can be used inside solid materials or cells.
Erasure Qubits and Dynamic Circuits for Quantum Advantage
The team will design new error-detection and correction methods for quantum computers using superconducting hardware technology to improve computing efficiency.
Quantum Photonic Integration and Deployment
The team will design chip-based quantum sensor technology that is portable and robust enough to be used in the field, outside the highly controlled laser laboratory environments typically required for such sensors.
