Federal Quantum Regional Hubs Bill Introduced

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Exterior view of the Innovare Advancement Center, showcasing modern architecture with a blue facade and large entrance doors.
Innovate Advancement Center in Rome, New York — a public-private R&D collaborative space in quantum technology

On March 23rd, a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders introduced a bill to spur greater regional innovation in quantum information science and technology (QIST). The Advancing Regional Quantum Hubs Act would amend the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) to require support for regional quantum innovation initiatives and enhance the educational and research capabilities of regions that have strengths in quantum fields.” 

Since 2023, several states including Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, Maryland, Connecticut and New York have made substantial investments in QIST research, education and technology development. These states are pursuing various strategies to build regional quantum technology ecosystems including leveraging federal and private R&D investments at leading research universities and federal laboratories within their respective states.

The regional hub bill was introduced in the Senate by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Marcia Blackburn (R-TN). Representatives Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Laura Gillen (D-NY) introduced a companion version in the Senate.

Specifically the bill would amend the NQI by:

— Add the U.S. Economic Development Administration to the membership of the Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science of the National Science and Technology Council and requiring the Subcommittee to facilitate interagency partnership opportunities to support the innovation, entrepreneurial, educational, and research capacity of regions with strength in quantum-related fields and industries. 

— Require the Director of the National Science Foundation to carry out research and educational programs that would support regional innovation initiatives in QIST, which may include award of funds under the Regional Innovation Engines grant program. 

— Require the Secretary of Energy to support regional innovation initiatives in QIST

Reauthorization of the National Quantum Initiative is currently under consideration in Congress with a bipartisan NQI bill introduced in January. It is likely that sponsors of the new regional bill will seek to incorporate their bill’s provisions into the larger NQI authorization effort.

National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act introduced in Senate

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Infographic outlining the timeline and key milestones of the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) from its inception in 2017 to future steps planned for 20XX.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) Reauthorization Act on January 8, 2025. According to the bill’s lead sponsors, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Todd Young (R-IN), the legislation would to accelerate quantum technology development and real-world applications that are vital to U.S. national security and global economic competitiveness. 

The NQI was established by Congress in 2018. The new bill would reauthorize existing provisions of the NQI while making several important changes, including:

  1. Extending the National Quantum Initiative by five years to December 2034. Reauthorizes quantum research, education and development initiatives across NIST, NSF and NASA.
  2. Requiring the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop an international quantum cooperation strategy to coordinate R&D activities with allies of the United States.
  3. Creating new prize challenges to accelerate the development of quantum applications and algorithms through public-private collaboration.
  4. Directing the Secretary of Commerce to submit a plan to Congress to strengthen quantum supply chain resilience.
  5. Establishing up to three new NIST quantum centers to advance research in quantum sensing, measurement and engineering.
  6. Creating five new NSF Multidisciplinary Centers for Quantum Research and Education, a quantum workforce coordination hub and quantum testbeds.
  7. For the first time, authorizing NASA quantum R&D activities including quantum satellite communications and quantum sensing research initiatives.

Tech Trends — Gene Editing, Space Manufacturing and Biodegradable Bioplastics

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently cited three emerging technologies trending towards maturity that could change society:

  1. Gene editing to treat or prevent disease, which may advance treatments for diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The development of gene editing may be limited by ethical concerns, particularly when factors such as whether the results of such editing can be inherited by children are included. Implications of such technologies include the high costs—currently over $2 million per patient—and whether federal funds may be used for certain types of gene editing. A potential consideration for policymakers, such as legislative bodies, government agencies, and other groups, is how the current federal funding restrictions may affect future gene editing research.
  2. Space-based manufacturing of semiconductor crystals, which may enable the production of high-quality semiconductors. The unique conditions of space—such as microgravity, a natural vacuum, and reduced contamination—could enable the production of semiconductor crystals with fewer defects and greater purity than those manufactured on Earth. These semiconductors could lead to more powerful computers, faster communication systems, and improved consumer electronics. The implications of such technologies include the dependency on foreign supply chains for raw materials, and safeguarding the spacecraft needed for enabling such manufacturing. A potential consideration for policymakers is whether a comprehensive licensing framework for investment, development, and intellectual property protection would benefit the development of these technologies.
  3. Biodegradable bioplastics, which may help reduce microplastic pollution through recent innovations, including algae-based or self-biodegradable bioplastics. The implications of such technologies include carbon dioxide emissions from biodegradation as well as increased complexity for consumers to make eco-friendly choices. Potential considerations for policymakers are increased clarity for labeling of such technologies, such as explicit notation of the conditions needed for biodegradation, and increased consumer education to help align the expectations of the technologies’ end of life procedures with consumer behavior.

GAO fallowed the STEER framework to help guide its approach, analyzing the social impacts, technology drivers, environment impacts, economic drivers, and the regulatory landscape for the three technology areas. Each of the three present profound ethical, economic, health, safety and environmental issues for policymakers and will require greater understanding and analysis to maximize innovation and reducing harms.

NIST to Assess the Societal Impacts and Risks of AI

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  • NIST’s new Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI (ARIA) program will assess the societal risks and impacts of artificial intelligence systems (i.e., what happens when people interact with AI regularly in realistic settings).
  • The program will help develop ways to quantify how a system functions within societal contexts once it is deployed.
  • ARIA’s results will support the U.S. AI Safety Institute’s testing to help build the foundation for trustworthy AI systems.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a new testing, evaluation, validation and verification (TEVV) program intended to help improve understanding of artificial intelligence’s capabilities and impacts. 

Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI (ARIA) aims to help organizations and individuals determine whether a given AI technology will be valid, reliable, safe, secure, private and fair once deployed. The program comes shortly after several recent announcements by NIST around the 180-day mark of the Executive Order on trustworthy AI and the U.S. AI Safety Institute’s unveiling of its strategic vision and international safety network.

ARIA expands on the AI Risk Management Framework, which NIST released in January 2023, and helps to operationalize the framework’s risk measurement function, which recommends that quantitative and qualitative techniques be used to analyze and monitor AI risk and impacts. ARIA will help assess those risks and impacts by developing a new set of methodologies and metrics for quantifying how well a system maintains safe functionality within societal contexts.

The results of ARIA will support and inform NIST’s collective efforts, including through the U.S. AI Safety Institute, to build the foundation for safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems. 

U.S. Announces $1.5 Billion for Chip Facilities in New York and Vermont

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The U.S. Department of Commerce will provide $1.5 billion to build and expand GlobalFoundries semiconductor facilities in New York and Vermont.

The funding is part of a continuing effort to on-shore semiconductor manufacturing capacity to the United States and reduce reliance on China. It is third award under the semiconductor incentives program established by Congress in 2022 through the CHIPS and Science Act with previous awards going to modernize and expand facilities in Colorado, Oregon and New Hampshire.

According to press statements by DoC and GF, the funds would help secure the supply chain for critical automotive semiconductors, as well as establish new leading-edge manufacturing capacity that is currently only located overseas.

The award will support creation of a new funding new state-of-the-art 300 mm fabrication facility at the GF at Malta, New York and expand and modernize existing GF manufacturing sites in New York and Vermont, which produce essential automotive, communications, and defense semiconductor technologies. This expansion will also bolster the supply chain for General Motors with whom GF entered into a strategic long-term supply agreement last year.

The proposed projects would create approximately 1,500 manufacturing jobs and approximately 9,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. In addition, the Department will also make an additional $1.6 billion in loans available to GF, with the combined potential public and private investment totaling approximately $12.5 billion.  

Chinese-Made Drones a Threat to U.S. Critical Infrastructure: CISA, FBI

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The use of Chinese-manufactured UAS in critical infrastructure operations risks
exposing sensitive information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, jeopardizing U.S. national security, economic security, and public health and safety, according to a new report issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The agencies note that Chinese-made drones are of particular concern since the PRC has enacted laws that provide the government with expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by firms in China. The report provides UAS cybersecurity guidance and urges provides critical infrastructure owners and operators to procure UAS that follow secure-by design principles, including those manufactured by U.S. companies.

NSF Announces New Awards to Fuel Translational Research

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ART -- Accelerating Research Translation

18 awards totaling more than $100 million will to enable academic institutions to accelerate the pace and scale of translational research leading to real-world solutions.

Authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, the the Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program addresses a long-standing gap between academic research and the need for practical products, services and solutions. Each ART awardee will receive up to $6 million over four years to identify and build upon academic research with the potential for technology transfer and societal and economic impacts, to ensure availability of staff with technology transfer expertise and to support the education and training of entrepreneurial faculty and students. Each ART awardee institution will benefit from having a partnership with a mentoring institution of higher education (IHE) that already has a robust ecosystem for translational research. A strong partnership between the awardee institution and a mentoring institution with an established translational research ecosystem is one of the unique features of the ART program. At least 15 universities are among the partner mentoring institutions that are part of the ART network formed by this cohort of awardees which include nine projects from EPSCoR states.

“NSF endeavors to empower academic institutions to build the pathways and structures needed to speed and scale their research into products and services that benefit the nation,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “The Accelerating Research Translation program in NSF’s new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate identifies and champions institutions positioned to expand their research translation capacity by investing in activities essential to move results to practice.”

ART awardees

The awardees are listed in alphabetical order by the institution name below. The full award list can be found on NSF’s website.

The ART program addresses a long-standing gap between academic research and the need for practical products, services and solutions. While ART seeks to build capacity and infrastructure for translational research at U.S. IHEs, the program also aims to enhance the role of IHEs in regional innovation ecosystems and effectively train graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in translational research, benefiting them across a range of career options.

OMB seeks public input on a draft AI policy

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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is seeking public comment on a draft memorandum titled Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).  According to the Biden Administration, the draft policy would “empower Federal agencies to leverage AI to improve government services and more equitably serve the American people.” The memorandum would establish new agency requirements in areas of AI governance, innovation, and risk management, and would direct agencies to adopt specific minimum risk management practices for uses of AI that impact the rights and safety of the public.

NSF announces $45 million for joint university-industry semiconductor research

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On September 18th, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $45.6 million for 24 semiconductor projects under the NSF Future of Semiconductors (FuSe) program, part of NSF’s CHIPS and Science Act research and education efforts.

According to a press release by NSF, the new funding will support 24 research and education projects through 61 awards to 47 institutions, including eight to minority-serving institutions and seven to NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions, and addresses three research topics:

Collaborative Research in Domain-Specific Computing

Advanced Function and High Performance by Heterogeneous Integration

New Materials for Energy Efficient, Enhanced-Performance and Sustainable Semiconductor-Based Systems

The FuSe program is a funded in part by four semiconductor manufacturers — Intel, IBM, Samsung and Ericksson. According the FuSE solicitation, the four companies have committed to providing annual contributions to NSF for the purpose of funding proposals awarded under this solicitation although the total industry contribution remains unclear from the information provided by NSF.

Under the program, NSF and each participating company will receive a non-exclusive, worldwide, paid-up, non-transferable, irrevocable royalty-free license to all intellectual property rights in any FuSE-derived inventions, consistent with the Bayh-Dole Act, which governs intellectual property rights under federally-supported research grants and contracts.