DOE announces $625 million to continue quantum research centers

The Department of Energy is refreshing its investment in five research centers focused on quantum information science after five years of operation.

In a Tuesday announcement, DOE said it’s putting up $625 million to keep all of the existing National Quantum Information Science Research Centers (QIS) going for up to five more years, matching the same investment that launched those centers in 2020.

“President Trump positioned America to lead the world in quantum science and technology and today, a new frontier of scientific discovery lies before us,” Darío Gil, DOE undersecretary for science, said in a written statement. “Breakthroughs in QIS have the potential to revolutionize the ways we sense, communicate, and compute, sparking entirely new technologies and industries.”

The centers were authorized by Congress and signed into law in 2018 during the first Trump administration as part of the National Quantum Initiative Act. Since the first January 2020 investment from DOE — which envisioned “two to five multidisciplinary Quantum Initiatives” — centers led by its Brookhaven, Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, and Fermi National Laboratories have been established.

According to a DOE press release, the work of each center includes supporting science that has “disruptive potential across quantum computing, simulation, networking, and sensing,” as well as  establishing “community resources, workforce opportunities, and industry partnerships.”

Renewal of the centers comes at a turbulent time for federal investment in scientific research. Under DOGE initiatives, the government has slashed funding at agencies like the National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency. Even similar initiatives have lost funding elsewhere. One of NSF’s AI Research Institutes, which began under the first Trump administration, had its funding pulled recently, putting its work in limbo.

But DOE reaffirmed the administration’s support for the centers in its release Tuesday, noting that the renewed funding “advances President Trump’s directive to restore American leadership in quantum science and technology.”