By David Awschalom

This is an exciting time. Q-NEXT has been working to lay the bedrock for cutting-edge quantum research since the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Energy announced awards for the establishment of five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers in August 2020. Together with you, our partners from national laboratories, universities and industry, we are tackling one of the grand challenges facing quantum science — how to manipulate and interconnect entangled states of matter.

Our five-year mission is to work together to deliver quantum interconnects and establish a national resource to provide pristine materials for new quantum devices. In these first months, we have already established the foundation for delivering impactful science.

One of our key goals is for two quantum foundries to be operational in 2022 — one at Argonne National Laboratory and the other at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The building of the infrastructure for these foundries is off to a successful start. They will serve as unique resources for U.S. industry, national labs and academia to transition new quantum materials to scalable devices. Joe Heremans, Q-NEXT foundry thrust leader, has provided an update on this effort below.

In recent months, we’ve selected members for our Science and Technology Advisory Committee. During the next five years, these internationally recognized experts will help us to determine which of our many research projects to put forward and when to integrate new directions into the Center.

We are also well underway in developing a 10- to 15-year roadmap to guide our research plan and reinforce the national ecosystem for QIS. Q-NEXT fosters highly ambitious collaborative research in quantum computing, sensing and communications in concert with world-class industrial partners. We welcome new ideas and opportunities for research projects, new models for collaboration and new ways to accelerate joint projects.

I want to thank each of you for your participation in the Q-NEXT mission. With your help we will be transforming tomorrow’s research and discoveries into technologies for society.

David Awschalom is the Q-NEXT director.

This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science National Quantum Information Science Research Centers.