A team led by Stony Brook University has secured a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the development of a 10-node quantum network, known as SCY-QNet. This initiative is part of the NSF’s National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) Quantum Testbeds program.
The project will connect atomic quantum processing units at Stony Brook, Columbia University, Yale University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The funding comes as part of the second phase of a three-phase competitive process under the NQVL program. Stony Brook and its partners advanced to Phase II after a successful pilot project and a four-part proposal submission, which included 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, Stony Brook Vice President for Research and Innovation. “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 for SCY-QNet as well as Stony Brook Presidential Innovation Endowed Professor and director of the Center for Distributed Quantum Processing, acknowledged the efforts behind this achievement. “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,” Figueroa 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.”
Figueroa also noted that a large Quantum Networks Town Hall was organized in New York City with support from national and international communities. “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,” he said.
Nina Maung-Gaona, senior associate vice president for research and innovation at Stony Brook University added: “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 next design phase funded by NSF over two years with $4 million in support (https://www.nsf.gov/), SCY-QNet will collaborate with several companies specializing in quantum technologies such as Toptica, Single Quantum, Aliro, and Qunnect. The aim is to improve network devices’ capabilities while increasing capacity.
SCY-QNet plans include evolving from enabling privacy-preserving long-distance communication using entanglement toward developing advanced systems involving entangled quantum memories and processors. This infrastructure will allow state-of-the-art experiments such as secret-key sharing protocols designed for secure communications between critical infrastructures like power generation systems on Long Island.
Future developments envisioned by SCY-QNet include teleportation-based communication systems utilizing remote matter-matter entanglement paired with time-synchronized classical networks—potentially supporting secure data transfer between sectors such as health care or finance—and creating networks of entangled atomic clocks among collaborating universities. Such networks could enhance global positioning system security through improved time precision.
Key technical challenges identified include establishing banks of heralded quantum memories across Long Island/New York City; developing robust repeater systems so entanglement can span more than 350 kilometers; building atom-based qubit processing units at participating institutions; converting SCY-QNet into configurable shared infrastructure; orchestrating collaborations through advanced classical networking; supporting multi-user access; fostering experimental work; advancing technology development; creating educational curricula spanning high school through graduate levels; expanding STEM workforce literacy; growing regional research/training/innovation ecosystems.