§8842 Multidisciplinary Centers for Quantum Research and Education

Summary

The Director of the National Science Foundation must give grants, after talking with other federal agencies when needed, to colleges, eligible nonprofits, or groups of them to set up between 2 and 5 Multidisciplinary Centers for Quantum Research and Education. Awarded teams may also include private companies. The Centers must do basic research and teach people to meet the goals in section 8813(d)(2). They must push quantum information science and engineering forward, build curriculum and workforce training, and bring industry know-how into research and training. Applicants must send proposals to the Director with required details. Each proposal must explain how the Center will work with other schools and industry, how it will bring together experts in fields like physics, engineering, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and materials science, how it will train workers now and in the future, how it will help turn research into real products, and how it will keep going after grant money ends. Each Center can operate for 5 years and may reapply for more 5-year periods. The NSF can close a Center for poor performance. The NSF may provide up to $10,000,000 per Center for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023, if Congress funds it, using NSF funds.