Insider Brief
- Air Force Research Lab will add $500 million in funding over a five year period to support quantum research.
- The lab has issued an announcement soliciting white papers for research, design, development, concept testing, evaluation and experimentation of Quantum Information Sciences
- The program’s goal is to: to advance and assess advanced algorithm designs and technologies, to harness emerging quantum computing techniques and to investigate entanglement distribution.
The Air Force Research Laboratory – Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) is anticipating $500 million in funding over a five year period to support quantum research.
The goal of this effort is to: advance and assess advanced algorithm designs and technologies, harness emerging quantum computing techniques and investigate entanglement distribution across a heterogeneous quantum network to support AFRL/RI’s C4I mission.
The laboratory has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) soliciting white papers for research, design, development, concept testing, evaluation and experimentation of Quantum Information Sciences supporting Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence (C4I)-related information and communications technologies and techniques.
The research supporting this portfolio will include Quantum Algorithms and Computing, Memory-Node-Based Quantum Networking, Quantum Information Processing, Heterogeneous Quantum Platforms, and Quantum Information Sciences. These technologies will have both in-house and contractual based requirements to support the overall mission of the RITQ branch.
Furthermore, AFRL/RI is interested in developing a user community around this emerging technology, to consist of other U.S. Government organizations (federal, state, and local), U.S. Government contractors and commercial industry, and academia (both public and private).
This BAA, which is a follow-on to BAA FA8750-20-S-7006 entitled Quantum Information Sciences, has an estimated funding of approximately $499,999,999M. Individual awards will not normally exceed 36 months with dollar amounts normally ranging from $0.5M to $27M. There is also the potential to make awards up to $99.9M.
Multiple awards are anticipated. However, the Air Force reserves the right to award zero, one, or more Procurement Contracts, Assistance Instruments, or Other Transactions, for all, some, or none of the solicited effort based on the offeror’s ability to perform desired work and funding fluctuations. There is no limit on the number of OTs that may be awarded to an individual offeror.
This BAA presents an exciting opportunity for researchers and innovators to collaborate and advance the field of Quantum Information Sciences to support the C4I mission of the Air Force. Interested parties can submit their white papers by the deadline indicated in the BAA.
You can find more information here.
For more market insights, check out our latest quantum computing news here.
