Faculty members from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have been selected to participate across three centers within the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCI) program. The initiative represents a nationwide $290 million funding allocation under the National Quantum Initiative Act framework, establishing and renewing eight QLCI centers (five expanded renewals and three newly created institutes) with individual 5-year awards ranging from $28 million to $37.5 million.
The QLCI framework spans 36 higher education institutions across 19 states, integrating academic researchers with Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, Department of Defense research units, NIST, and over 30 private quantum industry partners to accelerate the transition of fundamental physical research into scaled manufacturing.
| [ UCSB QLCI Faculty Participation & Core Technical Mandates ] | ||
|---|---|---|
| QLCI Center & Lead Institution | UCSB Investigators | Technical Scope & Engineering Focus |
| • Q-SEnSE (CU Boulder / JILA) Renewed ($37.5M) | • Daniel Blumenthal (ECE) | • Photonic integration of ultra-stable lasers and photonic ICs • Deploying integrated photonics for portable optical lattice clocks, atom interferometers, and trapped-ion/neutral-atom systems |
| • MARQUIS (Princeton University) New Institute ($27.9M) | • Michel Devoret (Google Quantum AI / Physics) | • Resilient superconducting QPU materials and nanofabrication • Re-engineering Josephson junction materials, reducing dielectric loss, and establishing mid-scale QPU testbeds |
| • CIQC (UC Berkeley) Renewed (~$30M) | • Andrew Jayich • Ania Jayich • David Weld (Physics) | • Scalable quantum algorithms and physical QPU simulation • Neutral-atom optical lattice engineering, ion-trap manipulation, and fundamental QIS probes |
Beyond hardware fabrication and algorithm development, the QLCI network mandates integrated workforce pipelines, combining doctoral research fellowships with community college training, K-12 outreach, and corporate internship programs to expand the U.S. quantum engineering talent pipeline.
Review the university announcement via the UC Santa Barbara Office of Public Affairs here, inspect national program guidelines at the NSF QLCI Portal here, and examine the full $290M portfolio breakdown in our detailed coverage of the NSF awards here.
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