A team led by Stony Brook University has received a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the development of a 10-node quantum network. The project, named SCY-QNet, aims to connect atomic quantum processing units at Stony Brook, Columbia University, Yale University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
This award is part of the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory – Quantum Testbeds (NQVL) program and marks the second phase of competitive funding for Stony Brook and its collaborators. The two-year grant follows a successful pilot project and required submission of a detailed proposal as well as an interview with experts in Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) and NSF program managers.
“This award puts Stony Brook and our collaborators solidly in a national leadership position for quantum networking and communication,” said Kevin Gardner, vice-president for Research and Innovation at Stony Brook University. “Our goal continues to be that Long Island and New York will be the birthplace of the new, secure quantum internet and the team of scientists and engineers that are responsible for the success of Phase 1 are second to none and deserve our recognition, praise, and continued support.”
Professor Eden Figueroa, lead principal investigator on the project, credited his team’s work during the pilot phase. “I would like to kindly thank the team of investigators and students in all our partner institutions that have been working really hard during the pilot phase of the project,” he said. “Thanks to their efforts we were able to demonstrate simultaneous entanglement distribution across Long Island, from Brooklyn to Stony Brook and from Stony Brook to Commack via Brookhaven National Laboratory, and to set the path to quantum connect to Columbia and Yale. These experiments were the basis of our successful application for the Design Phase of the NQVL project.”
He added: “We also organized a large Quantum Networks Town Hall in New York City, in which the national and International community showed their support for our SCY-QNet concept. With partners like SUNY, The Ohio State University, the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the Great Plains Network, NIST, NASA, IBM, Cisco, and JP Morgan Chase, we are now preparing a large collaboration that will start designing the future quantum internet of the US and its new applications.”
Nina Maung-Gaona, senior associate vice president for Research and Innovation at Stony Brook University said: “These quantum education and training initiatives are doing more than just building the future quantum workforce. They’re cultivating an innovation ecosystem right here in the greater NY area—one that will catalyze a new era of scientific discovery and economic leadership.”
In this design phase of SCY-QNet’s development, partnerships with companies such as Toptica, Single Quantum, Aliro, and Qunnect will help improve devices used in quantum networks. The network is expected to advance from supporting privacy-preserving long-distance communication using entanglement toward creating an advanced system with entangled quantum memories and processors.
The infrastructure being developed will enable experiments such as secret-key sharing protocols intended for secure communications between sectors like power generation systems on Long Island. Future plans include constructing teleportation-based communication systems using remote matter-matter entanglement along with time-synchronized classical networks—allowing critical data transfer between institutions in fields such as health care or finance. There is also potential for developing networks based on entangled atomic clocks among partners including Columbia University and Yale University; these could improve time precision for GPS systems or fundamental physics research.
Three major technical challenges underlie this next stage: building banks of heralded quantum memories across Long Island/New York City; creating robust repeater systems so entanglement can span over 350 kilometers; developing atom-based qubit processing units at participating institutions.
The SCY-QNet testbed will serve as configurable shared infrastructure featuring a modern classical network core designed to coordinate devices involved in quantum operations. This virtual laboratory aims to scale nationally or internationally while enabling multiple users access for collaborative experimental work.
The initiative also includes educational efforts aimed at establishing a standardized curriculum covering high school through graduate levels across partner institutions—including several SUNY campuses—and providing pathways for current STEM professionals seeking training in quantum technologies.