Description
A recently released US government report prepared by the US National Science and Technology Council, a cabinet-level council of advisors to the US President, presented a compelling argument for robust international cooperation in quantum information science and technology (QIST). The group called for dedicated funding mechanisms and improved US government interagency coordination to bolster global QIST collaboration. Key motivations cited for standing up a centralized US government cooperative QIST program included opportunities to advance QIST capability at a faster pace, to grow, attract, and engage international talent, to promote robust access to necessary QIST resources and their eventual markets, and to strengthen international engagement with nations considered to be aligned with US economic and national security interests. The report recognized that US government departments operate under an autonomous funding model with individual agencies having their own programmatic mechanisms, complicating the options for those agencies to participate in large-scale, multinational cooperative partnerships either individually or collectively.
