The new initiatives to bolster quantum technology, which is based on the principles of quantum mechanics, will be overseen by the nonprofit QuantumCT. The funds include $50 million to expand the state's quantum infrastructure, which will complement a recently announced $10 million allocation for QuantumCT that is part of the state's Innovation Clusters initiative. In addition, the state could provide an additional allotment of up to $60 million to support potential federal funding.
"The time to prepare our state, to lay the groundwork for our future and to prepare our workforce is now," Daniel O'Keefe, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said in a news conference at Kline Tower, part of the Science Hill section of Yale's campus in New Haven. "And I believe Connecticut is uniquely positioned to lead. For over a century, Connecticut has led in advanced manufacturing and the application of advanced technologies."
QuantumCT is the result of a UConn-Yale partnership that was launched in response to the National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines program. A QuantumCT proposal is a finalist for grant funding through the RIE program, with winning proposals expected to be announced in the first quarter of next year.
If the NSF selects QuantumCT's plan, the endorsement would unlock up to $60 million in additional state funding.
The centerpiece of QuantumCT's work is a planned incubator that would be located in a to-be-determined, off-campus location in New Haven. A news release about the new quantum funding describes it as a "first-of-its-kind facility" that will "combine co-working and lab space with engineering and materials characterization capabilities, quantum testbeds and onsite technical expertise."
"We have thought leadership, we have a really high density of early adopters, we have a right to win," said QuantumCT CEO and President Albert M. Green. "So we're about to get after it now."
In addition to the previously announced $10 million allocation for QuantumCT, New Haven has qualified for about $40 million in other Innovation Clusters funds to support life sciences and quantum projects.
"If you look at what has happened with life sciences and biosciences, we're the second-largest hub in New England, we're ranked in the top 20 cities nationwide for NIH grants, and so New Haven is clearly, clearly on the map," said New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. "By putting in this investment, you're making it more likely that we are going to have a significant federal investment that is going to drive this trajectory."
UConn and Yale officials said that their universities are longtime quantum supporters, citing a number of large infrastructure investments that are separate from the new funding. They include the Science 1 building, which opened in 2023 on UConn's main campus in Storrs, and Yale's underway construction of several buildings, totaling more than 600,000 gross square feet, in its Upper Hill Science Development, that will support quantum-science engineering and materials.
"We are so excited to be in partnership with UConn and other schools through the state, the private sector, local leaders, community partners and the state of Connecticut — all brought together in QuantumCT, a really historic partnership," said Yale President Maurie McInnis.
UConn President Radenka Maric said that, "Today, we celebrate the partnership between our state, our educational institutions and our companies that will advance supportive technologies to benefit our state."
O'Keefe said that he believed that quantum technology would have a massive impact on Connecticut's economy.
"If you look at our core industries, things like advanced manufacturing in support our national defense, things like cryptography, if you look at things like financial technology, if you look at insurance technologies, if you look at health care, biotech, the emergence of quantum will accelerate innovation in every single one of those industries," O'Keefe said.
Gov. Ned Lamont offered a similarly bullish outlook.
"This is what we do in Connecticut," said Lamont, whose Yale roots go back to the master of business administration that he earned in 1980 from the university's School of Management. "We're not the cheapest, but we're the best. A lot of that has to do with the incredible universities we have here, the amazing research and development. And you see that is what is evidenced today. And that's why this is so important to your future and our future, and the future, I think, of this country."
© 2025 The Advocate (Stamford, Conn.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
