Jul. 8—A New Mexico quantum technology project has been named a semifinalist for a federal funding program that could bring millions to support economic and national security efforts.
The Quantum Moonshot initiative — led by Elevate Quantum in partnership with the state’s national laboratories, the New Mexico Economic Development Department and the University of New Mexico — was named one of 29 semifinalists in the National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines program, the federal agency announced on Tuesday.
If awarded, the initiative could yield $15 million in funding over two years, said Jake Douglass, the quantum business development lead at Sandia Labs, and up to $160 million over 10 years to make breakthroughs in and commercialize quantum navigation, sensing and computing technologies.
“We’re very excited if New Mexico could benefit from a large-scale investment like this,” Douglass told the Journal.
The initiative builds on the state’s efforts in branding itself as a quantum hotspot. Last year, the federal Economic Development Association awarded New Mexico and Colorado $41 million to create the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub. More recently, the state Economic Development Department announced $25 million in funding for the buildout of a venture studio aimed at accelerating the development of quantum technologies in New Mexico.
The initiative also joins another New Mexico-based project — Energized Watershed, led by UNM in conjunction with the national labs and other stakeholders — named a semifinalist in the NSF Engines program. David Hanson, assistant vice president for research at UNM, said the project is focused on capturing, recycling, treating and reusing water across the state, West Texas and the Navajo Nation.
Quantum Moonshot was one of nearly 300 that last year submitted a letter of intent seeking funding through the NSF Engines program. By October, the initiative joined 70 other projects that advanced to the next round before being named a semifinalist this month. NSF said it expects to announce the final list of awardees in early 2026.
But Quantum Moonshot faces some competition on the quantum front. Projects spearheaded by the University of Connecticut and the University of Chicago are also in the mix, seeking shares of the millions of dollars in federal funding through the program.
While the tech hub designation helped bring together key partners to advance quantum technology development in New Mexico, Douglass said the NSF Engines program is going to “flip that.”
“Its goal is to bridge the valley of death of getting technology out of the lab into the commercial sector,” Douglass said.
Hanson, whose Energized Watershed project participated in the first round of the NSF Engines competition, said having two New Mexico-based projects speaks to the state’s world-class talent.
“We have the smartest people in the world here,” Hanson said. “It’s a tough competition and for our people to have two of the 29 is enormous. … It’s very exciting for the state.”