Key Points:
- DOE has renewed funding for the Quantum Science Center, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, through 2030.
- National labs, universities, and industry partners will collaborate to develop integrated quantum-HPC systems through five coordinated research thrusts.
- The initiative aims to create a new scientific ecosystem for QHPC, strengthening U.S. innovation and global leadership in quantum and high-performance computing.
The Department of Energy has renewed funding for the Quantum Science Center through 2030 to create a new scientific ecosystem for fault-tolerant, quantum-accelerated high-performance computing (QHPC).
The total planned funding for the Quantum Science Center is $125 million over 5 years, with $25 million in Year 1 and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.
The QSC, which is headquartered at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and its partners will target the critical research needed to amplify the impact of quantum computing through its convergence with leadership-class exascale HPC systems.
"Since 2020, the Quantum Science Center has been at the forefront of U.S. quantum research, laying the groundwork for future technologies," said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. "This exciting new charge leverages ORNL's esteemed partnerships, our global leadership in high-performance computing, and our deep expertise in the materials science underlying quantum technologies. I'm honored DOE has entrusted us to develop this critical capability for advancing U.S. innovation and competitiveness."
Research over the next five years will develop an open QHPC interconnected software system, quantum algorithms for hybrid computing systems, co-design of QHPC architectures, scientific applications using fault-tolerant quantum computers and an experimental database for validating these applications against real-world materials.
"The renewal of the Quantum Science Center comes at a pivotal time for the nation's quantum mission," said Gina Tourassi, associate laboratory director for ORNL's Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate. "Bringing quantum and high-performance computing together will redefine what's possible in science and technology. The Quantum Science Center is charting that future."
The center will integrate five complementary major research thrusts that accelerate the viability of QHPC to tackle science's most daunting challenges. By combining the unique capabilities of the national laboratories, industry and academia, the center will drive research into quantum-accelerated HPC that no institution alone could accomplish, thus harnessing the power of QHPC to ensure American technological leadership.
"The QSC is tackling the major scientific challenge of realizing quantum computation as a paradigm that will takes us beyond the capabilities of today's leadership-class HPC systems," said Travis Humble, director of the QSC.
The collaborative software effort, led by ORNL's Vicente Leyton, will develop openQSE, an adaptive, end-to-end software ecosystem for QHPC systems and applications. Yigit Subasi from Los Alamos National Laboratory, or LANL, will lead the hybrid algorithms thrust, which will design algorithms that combine conventional and quantum methods to solve challenging problems in the simulation of model materials. The QHPC architectures thrust, under the guidance of ORNL's Chris Zimmer, will co-design hybrid computing systems that integrate quantum computers with leadership-class HPC systems. The scientific applications thrust, led by LANL's Andrew Sornberger, will develop and validate applications of quantum simulation that will be implemented on prototype QHPC systems. And ORNL's Michael McGuire will lead the thrust to establish experimental baselines for quantum materials that ultimately validate these QHPC simulations against real-world measurements.
Bringing quantum and high-performance computing together will redefine what's possible in science and technology. The Quantum Science Center is charting that future.
"All five thrust areas, and the projects that comprise them, are coordinated to realize the overall center goal of creating a new scientific ecosystem for QHPC," said Humble.
Partner organizations include Atom Computing, California Institute of Technology, or Caltech; Cornell University; IBM; Infleqtion; IonQ; IQM; Los Alamos National Laboratory; North Carolina State University; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Purdue University; Quantinuum; QuEra; Riverlane Research; Unitary Foundation; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; University of California, San Diego; and University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The center was created in 2020 in response to the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 in the interests of national security and global scientific leadership. It is one of five multidisciplinary National Quantum Information Science Research Centers supported by the DOE's Office of Science.
Since then the center has hosted a range of breakthroughs, including the integration of open-source programming of industrial quantum computers with DOE leadership computing systems, allowing researchers to run more complex quantum simulations in tandem with high-performance computing systems; testing the frontiers of entanglement by simulating topological matter with custom quantum computers, which enabled the creation of new hardware platforms that extend the understanding of materials that cannot yet be made in the laboratory; and the first large-scale quantum computer simulation of nuclear physics exceeding 100 qubits, which demonstrated that larger, more sophisticated quantum computer applications are essential for advancing scientific discovery, energy innovation, and national security.
By uniting national laboratories, academic institutions and industry partners, the QSC is enhancing the computational robustness, algorithmic scalability and simulation accuracy of quantum computing systems. By validating QHPC methods against state-of-the-art experiments, the QSC is positioning the United States at the forefront of quantum-accelerated computing, benefiting science and technology globally. For more information, visit qscience.org .
UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for DOE's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE's Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science . - Jenny Oberhaus
