Greetings,

We are excited to share this limited submission opportunity for the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory. This is a multi-phase opportunity, and for the current pilot phase, NSF is accepting one letter of intent per lead institution. More information about the award and internal selection process can be found in the synopsis and links below.

NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) Quantum Science and Technology Demonstrations (QSTD): I. Pilot Phase 

Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: February 7, 2024 at 11:59 PM

OSP Deadline (if nominated): April 4, 2024. Departments or areas may require additional time for review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your grants administrator.

Sponsor Letter of Intent Deadline (if selected): April 9, 2024

Award Amount: up to $1M for 12 months

The National Quantum Initiative (NQI) Act aims to ensure the continuing leadership of the United States in quantum information science and technology. With this program solicitation, the NSF is introducing the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) concept as an overarching shared infrastructure designed to facilitate the translation from basic science and engineering to the resultant technology, while at the same time emphasizing and advancing its scientific and technical value. The development of the NQVL is expected to take place over several years. The present solicitation concerns only the Pilot phase of the Quantum Science and Technology Demonstration (QSTD) project components of the NQVL.

The Pilot phase will be 12 months duration at a funding level of up to $1,000,000 per project. The Pilot phase is focused on the development of the conceptual design of the QSTD project. Specifically, the team will:

• Refine the science questions;
• Define requirements and prioritize research objectives;
• Identify enabling technologies and risks;
• Identify critical partnerships and dependencies;
• Develop top-down cost and contingency estimates;
• Formulate initial risk assessment;
• Draft initial Project Execution Plan; and
• Draft initial Workforce Development Plan.

In the Pilot phase, each QSTD team will convene a Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) community town hall meeting seeking community input, foster an open scientific dialogue, collect baseline data to aid in the development of a diverse workforce development plan, and ensure the broad participation of the entire QISE community. The outcome of this activity, in addition to addressing the specific requirements, will be a QISE Strategic Plan for addressing the topic of the QSTD Pilot. 

Please Note: This is a limited submission opportunity and Harvard may only submit one QSTD Pilot proposal as Lead Organization. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research will conduct an internal competition to select Harvard’s nominee. To be considered for the Harvard nomination, potential applicants must submit an internal pre-proposal by 11:59 PM on February 7, 2024, via the link above. It is required that prospective PIs contact the NQVL Program Officers to determine the level of readiness for submission to the Pilot phase. The internal application must include an attestation from the applicant PI confirming that they have contacted the appropriate NSF Program Officer and that the focus and budget proposed are appropriate for this solicitation. 

See the full program solicitation here: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2023/nsf23604/nsf23604.pdf.

Questions from FAS or SEAS faculty about this opportunity may be directed to research_development@fas.harvard.edu. 

Requests for support related to the application portal may be directed to vpr@harvard.edu.