President Trump issued an executive order (EO) on August 30 to establish the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee, which will help direct Federal research and investments into quantum computing.
The committee – included as part of the National Quantum Initiative Act signed into law in December – will advise the Federal agencies tasked with implementing the law. The Secretary of Energy will name to the committee up to 22 members from “industry, universities, Federal laboratories, and other Federal government agencies” and the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the EO states.
The advisory committee’s main task will be to support the activities of the Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science, housed within the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), by providing expertise and making recommendations. The committee also will solicit expertise from the quantum community at large to inform its recommendations.
By advising the subcommittee, the advisory committee will have a say on how the Federal government coordinates quantum activities between Federal agencies, recommends new infrastructure, and creates an interagency budget for quantum information science. The bill tasks the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation with activities to encourage quantum computing development.