Among the 12 awardees the Quantum Hub based in Colorado and the Photon Sensor Hub based in Montana.
The Commerce Department announced that it will award $504 million in implementation funds to 12 regional coalitions aiming to jumpstart technology development across the United States. Announced Today the winner is The 31 finalists People who applied to the Tech Hub program, which Congress created through the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.
The hubs’ focus areas include quantum information, photonics, semiconductors, clean energy, sustainable polymers, climate resilience, biomanufacturing, personalized medicine, and autonomous systems. Each hub will receive between $19 million and $51 million in funding from the ministry and will leverage additional contributions from coalition partners.
Among the winners are Improving the quantum technology hub The Colorado-based hub will receive about $41 million for activities such as “building an open-access quantum lab and fab to enable rapid prototyping and low-volume production of critical quantum technologies.” The hub is one of two finalists focused on quantum technologies, the other being Chicago-based Blocktech Hub.
Colorado is providing $44 million in tax credits for the construction of quantum research labs and $30 million in a loan loss fund for quantum companies. The support is provided through legislation enacted by Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D). Signed The event will be held in May at JILA, a research institute based at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“Our region has always played a key role in advanced technology and we are proud to support these efforts through a $74 million state investment, contingent on this federal grant, which is now coming to fruition,” Polis said. statement today.
The state of New Mexico is also one of the hub’s major partners, pledging $10 million to help fund the hub. Participating organizations in the state include Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, which recently established the Quantum New Mexico Institute, modeled after JILA.
In the race for the Tech Hub Award and other quantum investments, government officials in Colorado and Illinois have priority Attract quantum research institutes and companies to each state.
Colorado’s proposal builds on the longstanding expertise in quantum information science of JILA and its federal sponsor, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose main campus is in Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder and JILA are already A major quantum research center Funded by the National Science Foundation, NSF Announced The university will receive $20 million to build a national quantum nanofab.
Illinois has also emerged as a hotbed of quantum technology, with Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) Reportedly The state is considering a multi-billion dollar quantum initiative.
Illinois has already another NSF’s major quantum research center and Two more It is funded by the Department of Energy. The Illinois-based quantum initiative was also a finalist for the first cohort of NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines, designed to complement the Commerce Department-funded hubs. (NSF ultimately did not select the quantum project.) The first set of 10 engines. )
Other winners announced today include Montana-based Headwaters Hub, The center will receive $41 million to develop photon remote sensing technology that can be deployed in autonomous systems with applications in areas such as natural resource management, disaster response and national security. The center noted that its rural environment is a key strength.
“We have the advantage of being able to incorporate several outdoor testbeds into our planning, initially focusing on rough terrain, precision agriculture, on- and off-highway activities. In the future, we envision expanding to defense applications, mountain operations and more,” the Hub said in a statement. Propose to the department. “But more important than the land itself is that we are a region with deep local knowledge of what it means to live and work in these environments. Among our neighbors and families are soldiers, farmers, foresters and ranchers. In many cases, our homegrown photonics experts grew up studying these professions.”
The Department of Commerce wanted to fund additional hubs but did not have enough funding to support the top-level applications it received.
“I’ve never seen a more bipartisan and popular program during my time in this Administration,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. Hearing “We have 400 applications requesting about $2 billion,” she said in May about next year’s budget requests.
“All of the 31 shortlisted projects are worthy of funding,” Raimondo added.
Congress set a budget goal of $10 billion over five years, but only $541 million has been provided so far, most of it from special one-time appropriations. The Biden administration request Congress will provide $4 billion in mandatory funding for the program, which is not subject to budget caps on discretionary spending.
