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On Wednesday of this week the House Science Committee will hold a hearing as part of the reauthorization effort for the U.S. National Quantum Initiative Act passed in 2018. In recent years, the global race to achieve quantum computing has reached what sometimes feels like a fever pitch as nations and regions ramp up quantum spending and development. The NQIAs initial authorization runs through September 2023.

Frank Lucas (R-OK) is the chair of the House Science Committee, which is gathering information as part of the reauthorization process. The recent CHIPS Act had already made some modifications and additions to NQIA; for example, the creation of nine microfabrication hubs as part of the Microelectronics Commons (MEC) program. Given the current wrangling over budget issues, its not clear whether changes will be considered.

Last week, theNational Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC)weighed in by publishing its first independent assessment of the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) program. Perhaps not surprisingly, the report calls for reauthorizing NQIA for at least another five years.

Heres are the overarching recommendations excerpted from the report:

The devil, of course, is in the details. This new phase will necessitate a ramp up of investments in fundamental research across engineering, systems integration, software, and applications discovery in order to mature and scale quantum systems into relevant technologies, reads the report. The NQIAC has developed nine detailed recommendations for achieving these objectives, described in the following sections. To summarize, they are: 1. Reauthorize and appropriate the NQI Act; 2. Expand research; 3. Fund industry-led partnerships; 4. Invest in equipment and infrastructure; 5. Promote international cooperation;6. Promote and protect U.S. QIST R&D; 7. Strengthen supply chains; 8. Develop domestic talent; and 9. Attract and retain foreign talent.

Scheduled speakers at Wednesdays hearing include:

As HPCwire has reported in the past, the U.S. NQIA is a complicated $2B-plus effort. One of its centerpieces was the creation of five QIS research centers, based at Department of Energy national laboratories. The centers are charged with advancing QIS (quantum information science) research, collaborating with industry, and helping to develop the workforce required to sustain QIS writ large. On the commercial side, the creation of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) was also called for by NQIA, and it is broadly being overseen by NIST. QED-Cs mission to provide a forum for industry to look at uses cases, standards, best practices, etc.

If youre a quantum watcher, you know there are similar efforts around the world. Just this year, the U.K issued its own 2.5B, 10-yearnational quantum strategy. China, the EU, Japan, and others have all joined the quantum race. At ISC23 last week, quantum computing advocates outlined many of Europes rapidly expanding plans, which are being overseen as part of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU).

In Estela Suarezs closing keynote (presented with Thomas Sterling), she noted, There is a huge investment in Europe in the integration of quantum computing and HPC. What you see here (slide below) are some of the [planned] installations. [They] will be in different cities and will all be federated with each other. Different sites will have different quantum technologies, by federating them all together, a user can try different kinds of machines and find out which users are more suitable for which kind of technologies. In parallel to that, there is a research agendathat has very aggressive very in the targets for the 2030 timeframe.

The race to achieve practical quantum computing is in full-force worldwide despite the many technical hurdles remaining. In light of the recent budget deal to avoid a U.S. government shutdown, it will be interesting to monitor what is eventually added (or removed) in NQIAs reauthorization.

Link to live webcast of the Congressional hearing scheduled to begin at 10 am on Wednesday, https://science.house.gov/hearings?ContentRecord_id=7684AFE7-D1EB-4079-B9A8-3941F0CCAF24

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Congressional Hearing on U.S. National Quantum Initiative ... - HPCwire