The Quantum Manufacturing Engineering Center (QMEC) will focus on accelerating the manufacture of scalable, high-performance quantum components and systems, for example by advancing enabling technologies such as cryostats and lasers. Specialized cryogenics, like the design shown here, are key to suppressing noise in systems that rely on quantum phenomena. This micrograph shows thin-film payload (orange) cooled by four pairs of tunnel junctions located at each corner of the payload. More details about the scientific work affiliated with this micrograph can be found here.
Credit: NIST
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced an agreement with SRI International, a nonprofit research and development institution, to help advance U.S. quantum research, development and manufacturing capabilities. Under the agreement, SRI is establishing the Quantum Manufacturing Engineering Center (QMEC) to accelerate manufacturing of scalable, high-performance quantum components and systems to drive significant growth in the U.S. quantum industry. NIST plans to make an initial investment of $20 million in the center’s activities.
“Quantum science promises to generate new knowledge and technologies that will supercharge scientific research and unlock enormous economic potential,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Paul Dabbar. “The new Quantum Manufacturing Engineering Center will bring together top experts to ensure both continued U.S. leadership in quantum technologies and that we are the epicenter of manufacturing quantum systems at scale to drive advances in sensing, communications, encryption, computing, biomedicine and other critical areas.”
The agreement advances the goals outlined in the Executive Order on Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation, and is another important step in implementing NIST’s Strategy for American Technology Leadership in the 21st Century to accelerate the progress of critical and emerging technologies from development to adoption, in close partnership with U.S. industry. This partnership with SRI provides a key platform to advance “the commercial readiness of quantum sensing and quantum-sensor manufacturing” by “supporting research and development pathways that advance quantum-enabling technologies and eliminate manufacturing barriers,” as called for in the June 22, 2026, executive order.
“NIST is a world leader in quantum science and technology based on decades of fundamental research that helped launch the U.S. quantum industry,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Arvind Raman. “This public-private partnership with SRI International will accelerate the development of America’s quantum industrial base — the foundation upon which the quantum revolution is being built.”
The partnership will leverage SRI International’s long-standing mission to transition emerging technologies to impactful commercial use. NIST expects the new QMEC to accelerate breakthroughs in research and engineering that remove engineering and manufacturing barriers and demonstrate market adoption.
The center will build on the successful partnership NIST and SRI began in 2019 to establish the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), in response to the National Quantum Initiative Act. Today, QED-C participants include essentially all major commercial developers of quantum technologies in the United States, as well as a large and growing number of end users. Through its engagement with QED-C and U.S. quantum companies, NIST identified quantum manufacturing engineering as a critical gap in national efforts to develop a robust commercial quantum industry.
This agreement supports NIST’s plan to coordinate innovative research efforts for accelerating the development and deployment of critical technologies in areas of national priority. Building on its long history of public-private collaboration, NIST plans to use adaptive and flexible partnerships to develop, pilot and implement new advances to establish U.S. leadership and innovation in critical and emerging technologies such as AI, quantum information science and technology, and biotechnology.
