On August 12, 2024, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a report titled “Advancing International Cooperation in Quantum Information Science and Technology,” prepared by the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science (SCQIS) with input from its Interagency Working Group on International Cooperation.
The report augments the National Strategic Overview for Quantum Information Science with three policy recommendations for strengthening U.S. international engagement in QIST. First, the U.S. government should create dedicated and long-term funding mechanisms to support international QIST collaboration. Second, federal agencies should enhance interagency coordination of international cooperation practices to reinforce an integrated government-wide portfolio of QIST engagement. Third, the U.S. government should establish and monitor metrics to measure global competitiveness in QIST and enabling technologies.
The report noted that from 2018 to 2022, roughly half of original peer-reviewed QIST research published by U.S. scientists involved international collaboration, compared to 40 percent across all scientific publications. It warned that as quantum technologies mature, governments may move to inhibit cooperation, even for early-stage research, to retain a perceived strategic advantage, which could impede the field’s progress. The report was published via OSTP and is available at quantum.gov.