Quantum Systems Accelerator

The Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA) is a U.S. National Quantum Information Science Research Center established in August 2020 and funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. QSA comprises 15 partner institutions – universities and national laboratories – bringing together pioneers of many of today’s unique quantum information science (QIS) and engineering capabilities. Led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), with Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia Labs) as the lead partner, 250+ QSA researchers are catalyzing U.S. leadership in a fast-growing field that seeks solutions to the Nation’s and the world’s most pressing problems by harnessing the laws of quantum mechanics. As part of its mission to explore the technologies required to bridge the gap between today’s NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) systems and those that will be fully fault-tolerant and capable of impactful science applications, QSA leverages state-of-the-art existing national facilities and the DOE’s robust history of pushing the frontiers of basic science and scientific computing. QSA also collaborates with industry and academic partners worldwide while preparing the Nation’s increasingly diverse quantum workforce, starting as early as high school. Since its founding, QSA has co-designed powerful programmable quantum prototypes that maximize the performance of current noisy quantum hardware in three major platforms: neutral atoms, trapped ions, and superconducting circuits. Furthermore, it has advanced the algorithms and platform-specific applications specifically constructed for near-term, imperfect hardware for scientific computing, materials science, and fundamental physics. These scientific achievements will continue accelerating the technology transfer from labs and universities to the marketplace and prepare the Nation’s workforce and industry to harness the capabilities of quantum computing.