U.S. Department of Energy Requesting Proposals for a $12 Million Quantum Testbed Pathfinder Program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement for a Quantum Testbed Pathfinder program to fund research groups that will perform investigations on any or all of the following topics:

1. What can fundamental physical limits on quantum processors tell us about what quantum computers can and cannot do?

2. How can we use Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices to move our understanding of when and how quantum computers might be useful as far forward as possible?

3. How can we assess the utility of a given (existing or hypothetical) quantum processor for advancing the frontiers of computational science?

The research projects are expected to last for four years and the DOE expects it will be funding multiple projects from an expected budget of $12 million. The grants can range any from $50,000 per year to $300,000 per year for an individual institution or $600,000 per year for a multi-institution project. The DOE has set a pre-application submission deadline of March 31, 2023 and a deadline for the final submission on May 3, 2023.

Additional details about this program and instructions on how to apply can be found in a the Funding Opportunity Announcement available here.

March 8, 2023