In July 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the first three awards under its Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCI) program, established under the National Quantum Initiative Act. Each institute received approximately $25 million over five years.
The three institutes were the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Enhanced Sensing and Distribution Using Correlated Quantum States (led by the University of Colorado at Boulder), the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Hybrid Quantum Architectures and Networks (led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Present and Future Quantum Computing (led by the University of California, Berkeley). Two additional institutes were added in September 2021.