Far more than expected! The research and development budget of Quantum Information Science in the United States is nearly US $3 billion in four years
The national quantum Initiative (nqi) act of the United States became public law No. 115-368 in December 2018, authorizing an investment of US $1.2 billion within five years to consolidate its leadership in the field of quantum information science and technology. Nqi act authorizes US federal departments and agencies to set up centers and alliances to promote the research and development of Quantum Information Science (QIS). The nqi act also requires federal departments, industry and academia to coordinate QIS R & D projects.
According to the requirements of nqi act, on December 6, the Quantum Information Science Subcommittee of the National Council of science and technology published the presidential supplementary budget of national quantum Initiative (nqi) for fiscal year 2022 for the second consecutive year, which is actually an annual budget report of nqi project.
In the four fiscal years after the adoption of the nqi Act (one fiscal year from October 1 to September 31 of the next year), the actual budget authorization for QIS R & D reported by various institutions in fiscal 2019, fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021 were US $449 million, US $672 million and US $793 million respectively. In fiscal year 2022, which began in October this year, the QIS R & D budget was increased to US $877 million, doubling compared with fiscal year 2019.
The total amount of 4 years is USD 2.791 billion, which is far higher than the 5-year USD 1.2 billion originally authorized by the nqi act.
These R & D budgets summarize the overall federal budgets for QIS R & D activities of several institutions (National Institute of standards and Technology NIST, National Science Foundation NSF, Department of energy doe, Department of Homeland Security DHS, Department of defense DOD and NASA), as well as the overall federal budgets of several QIS sub themes (e.g., computing, networking, sensing, basic science and Technology).
Most of the increase in QIS R & D budget is used for nqi activities, such as the establishment of quantum alliance by NIST, the establishment of quantum leap challenge Institute by NSF, the establishment of national QIS research center by DOE, and the coordination and strengthening of core QIS projects of many institutions.
The light part in the figure below is the QIS R & D budget authorized by nqi, and the dark part is the basic QIS R & D budget outside nqi. Even if only looking at the former, it has exceeded US $1.2 billion.
These budgets include five project components (PCA):
● quantum sensing and Metrology (qsens) refers to the use of quantum mechanics to improve sensor and measurement science. This may include the use of superposition and entanglement, the non classical state of light, new metrology systems or modes, and the improvement of accuracy achieved by quantum control, such as atomic clocks.
● quantum computing (qcomp) activities include the development of quantum bits and entanglement gates, quantum algorithms and software, digital and analog quantum simulators using programmable quantum devices, quantum computers and prototypes, hybrid digital + analog and quantum + classical computing systems.
● quantum network (qnet) includes efforts to create and use entangled quantum states that can be distributed over long distances and shared by many parties for new information technology applications and basic science; For example, the networking of medium-sized quantum computers (modules) is expected to enhance the ability to surpass classical computing.
● promote the Quantum Information Science (qadv) of basic science, including the basic work of using quantum equipment and QIS theory to expand the basic knowledge of other disciplines; For example, improve understanding of biology, chemistry, computing, cosmology, energy science, engineering, materials, nuclear matter and other basic sciences.
● quantum technology (QT) classifies the above topics: cooperate with end users to deploy quantum technology on site and develop use cases; Basic research and development of quantum information science and engineering support technologies, such as infrastructure and manufacturing technology of electronics, photonics and Cryogenics; And efforts to understand and reduce the risks posed by quantum technology, such as post quantum cryptography.
The following figure shows the budgets obtained by the five PCA in fiscal year 2019-2022. It can be seen that quantum sensing and measurement, basic science and quantum computing have the largest budget, among which quantum computing has the largest budget increase, from the third in fiscal 2019 to the first in fiscal 2021 and 2022.
In addition, from the perspective of departments, the total QIS R & D budgets of NIST, NSF and DOE of the three institutions specified in the nqi act are shown in the figure below.
Link:https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NQI-Annual-Report-FY2022.pdf
