Local quantum efforts need robust funding help, experts say

Quantum technology holds a great deal of promise for state and local economies, but its research must receive strong financial support if regions are to stay competitive, speakers warned at an event this week.

Chattanooga, Tennessee has looked to set its stall out as a leader on the technology by establishing the nation’s first quantum tech center and building a quantum computer, while others — including Chicago, Maryland, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana and Indiana — have looked to forge their own paths forward.

And while it makes for an exciting time, as states and localities try to be on the cutting edge of quantum, funding for research into the nascent computing technology must be sustained to ensure they can stay on that cutting edge.

“It’s important to have a very robust ecosystem for research,” said Jean-Luc Cambier, regional innovation officer at the Chicago Quantum Exchange — a program that works with academia, industry and the private sector to advance quantum research — during this week’s GovExec Quantum Summit. “Even if we have quantum technology now, it keeps getting better. You may be, say, the leader in quantum 1.0 but somebody else is still developing quantum 2.0, so I'm a bit worried about the funding ecosystem for research.”

But there is hope for continued investment in the quantum industry, even as other technology and cybersecurity-related initiatives have struggled in the face of uncertain federal funding. Janet Rehberg, president of strategic initiatives at EPB, the Chattanooga power utility that backs the city’s fiber network and its push towards quantum technology, said it recently received grant funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to hire eight fellows to help build quantum applications for the city’s energy sector.

And Rehberg said EPB has enjoyed “strong legislative support” at the state and national level, as Tennessee lawmakers “really see the importance of quantum.”

“There's great things that happen when you collaborate and you support each other,” she added. Cambier also noted the “incredible support” for quantum at the state and federal levels, even as things are a “bit uncertain.”

One of the biggest priorities for state and local governments as they look to move ahead in the race to quantum technology is ensuring that they have enough workers properly trained to take advantage. Rehberg said the eight fellows will be in a yearlong program where they will be trained on a trapped ion quantum computer and then can shadow those in the energy industry so they can develop applications and use cases in that sector.

“They're not only going to be learning fundamentals, but they're going to be able to help us build a real-life application,” she said. EPB had 90 applicants within two weeks of opening the fellowships to the public, Rehberg added.

It’s a similar story in Chicago, where CQE has partnered with various universities and companies in the city to help get people placed in jobs that the private sector might struggle to fill. Cambier noted that quantum needs a variety of skillsets and educational backgrounds.

“It's something that is important to communicate to the communities, that you don't necessarily need to have a PhD in physics or math to be part of the quantum workforce,” he said. “You may want to have somebody who does cryogenics, or electrical engineers, and others. There is a whole spectrum of positions.”

Building partnerships is critical, then, as states and cities look to take their place as quantum leaders. Finding use cases that benefit industries that already exist in a city is one way of helping them take advantage of quantum. Chattanooga, for example, is home to finance, healthcare, automotive, logistics and energy companies. Getting them thinking about how to use quantum helps make the technology more real and gets everyone to the table, Rehberg said.

“We've been talking to all the CEOs of those different industries … and saying, what is it that you want to solve that technology today cannot solve?” she said. “We would brainstorm as a collaborative partner to try to solve different sectors’ problems.”

The economic impact could be huge, too. A recent McKinsey & Company study found that the entire quantum industry could be worth billions of dollars within a decade, with economies set to benefit from high-tech jobs and research, as well as the indirect effects from work that supports quantum, like construction and operations, as well as new educational opportunities.

But both speakers agreed that it is impractical for one city or state to be the only leader on quantum. Instead, different areas of the country must embrace their different strengths if the U.S. is to keep up with other countries in what is an international competition.

“The reality is, the competitive race really is a global race,” Rehberg said. “If you think about encryption and all that, us living in the United States, we have to combine forces to be the leader as a country to move forward,” Rehberg said.

“I think it's very important to have to have not just one hub,” Cambier agreed. “It would be a huge mistake to do that. There are several places that are doing exceptional work in the development of quantum technology, and it's very important that they all work together.”