The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy has announced $30 million in funding to develop quantum computing-enabled strategies for studying chemistry and materials.
To be awarded through the Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry program, the funding would support project teams’ efforts to develop new quantum algorithms for innovative energy research, ARPA-E said Thursday.
The selected teams will work on specific chemistry or materials science problems, where quantum capabilities can be used to increase clean energy generation or cut down greenhouse gas emissions. The projects could introduce new superconductors for more efficient electricity transmission or develop enhanced battery chemistries, the agency added.
According to ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang, the QC3 projects will use the power of quantum computing to overcome the limits of conventional computing and enable researchers to solve high-impact energy problems.
Under the program, the project teams will be required to present quantum simulations that demonstrate a hundred times improvement over classical computing methods. The teams can also showcase scalable solutions that can be verified on existing quantum computing systems.
The QC3 program advances ARPA-E’s mission to develop and deploy advanced energy technologies.