DOE’s Dario Gil Summarizes SCAC Roadmap Toward Error-Corrected Quantum Computing by 2028

The subcommittee proposed a three-phase approach.

• Quantum Grand Challenges (2026–2028): Competitive, multidisciplinary challenges will bring national labs, universities, and industry together to develop hardware, algorithms, and software targeted at specific scientific goals by 2028.

• Integrated quantum future (2030 and beyond): The endpoint is embedding quantum co-processors, simulators, and sensors across DOE's scientific enterprise to complement AI and high-performance computing networks.

• Recent technical improvements in logical qubits, error correction, and system integration suggest quantum computing is approaching practical scientific use.

• Success should be measured by the ability to solve important scientific problems, with research challenges defining hardware and software requirements.

• DOE's existing research ecosystem can enable co-design of systems alongside scientific users, following precedents such as accelerator and light-source facilities.

• Researchers need more transparency into hardware architectures, control interfaces, and diagnostics, supported by collaboration frameworks that protect intellectual property.

• Continued investment is required in coherence, cryogenics, control systems, modular architectures, and manufacturability—areas aligned with DOE strengths in superconductivity and microelectronics.

Gil emphasized that DOE's objective is to solve scientific problems that classical computing cannot handle, listing potential application areas such as drug development, catalyst design, fusion materials, and early-universe physics. He said DOE will remain technology-neutral and explore new partnership models with industry, aiming for systems that deliver validated scientific value rather than maximizing qubit counts alone.

Implications for researchers and funders

For researchers, the roadmap signals funding and program structures that prioritize collaborative challenge problems and access to experimental systems. For funders and program managers, the report recommends measurable milestones tied to scientific outcomes and continued investment in foundational hardware and integration work. The proposed user facility would be a laboratory-style resource for co-design and experimentation rather than a purely cloud-based access model.

SCAC's roadmap sets milestones through 2028 and outlines steps for planning a user facility. The committee recommends continuing diverse hardware development while focusing near-term efforts on demonstrable scientific use cases. DOE will use the roadmap to guide competitions, partnerships, and facility planning that support the roadmap's milestones.