January 15, 2025 -- To kick off the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in 2025, three Colorado universities in collaboration with Elevate Quantum have announced that a new facility for fostering quantum technologies is coming to Colorado.

The State of Colorado has taken bold action to help bring the advances in quantum physics out of the lab and into the real world through its investment into the Quantum Incubator and related quantum assets throughout the state.

The facility will be housed in a 13,000-square-foot space in east Boulder. It is funded by a state tax incentive and spearheaded by CU Boulder, in partnership with Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and Elevate Quantum, a coalition of 120 organizations, including the three campuses, in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Additionally, CU Boulder is providing leadership and staff resources for its development and launch.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the role CU Boulder is playing in this important work,” said Massimo Ruzzene, vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes at CU Boulder. “By stepping up to secure the physical facility, establish the operating entity, identify prospective tenants and ready the building to ramp up operations starting in January, we are positioning the incubator to quickly fill an important need in advancing quantum innovation across the region.”

The facility will include a collaborative office environment for early-stage quantum companies and state-of-the-art scientific equipment—providing a testbed to transform ideas for quantum technologies into products that will benefit consumers in Colorado and beyond. Quantum technologies could include sensors for detecting signs of illness in human breath or networks that may one day send data that can’t be hacked over long distances.

“Quantum science and technologies will enable life-changing advances that touch every segment of society,” said Chancellor Justin Schwartz. “This collaborative facility will allow our researchers’ discoveries to progress more quickly from lab to market and will help cement Colorado and the United States as global leaders in this exciting field.”

The quantum incubator is one piece of a wide-ranging effort to grow the Mountain West region as a “center of mass” for quantum technology, said Scott Sternberg, executive director of the CUbit Quantum Initiative at CU Boulder. It is especially timely as UNESCO has deemed 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

Rapid growth

Momentum around quantum has been building.

JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has served as the regional epicenter for quantum research for over 60 years.

In 2023, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) named Elevate Quantum, headquartered in Denver, as an official tech hub for quantum information technology. Since that designation, the coalition has secured more than $120 million in funding to grow the quantum industry in Colorado and the Mountain West.

As part of that effort, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law House Bill 1325 in 2024, which directed funds to create the new incubator. Today, the quantum industry supports about 3,000 jobs in the state, but that number could grow to more than 10,000 in the next decade.

“We asked the question: What is Boulder great at when it comes to quantum?” Sternberg said. “And how can the incubator provide a catalyst to make these assets even greater?”

Center of mass

The quantum incubator will not be alone in Colorado. In June, the U.S. National Science Foundation announced a $20 million National Quantum Nanofab facility that will be constructed on the CU Boulder campus. Elevate Quantum is also launching a 70-acre campus in Arvada, Colorado, called the Quantum COmmons, with an initial 30,000 square feet of shared-use facilities being developed by Colorado School of Mines in support of Elevate Quantum partners.

Sternberg sees these facilities as part of a progression—helping companies go from papers in a scientific journal, to new prototypes, to products built at scale and, eventually, to the market.

“Colorado’s new quantum facilities will help turn discoveries in the lab into real-world applications, continuing our leadership in quantum science and creating thousands of new jobs for Coloradans,” said Eve Lieberman, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. “We are excited to celebrate this milestone and look forward to the achievements it will bring to our state.”

The new Boulder facility will also be a vibrant place to work. Physicists, engineers, lab workers and businesspeople can meet quantum experts from Colorado and around the world to share ideas and expertise. They’ll also be able to run experiments on equipment rarely seen outside of large universities. That could include working atomic clocks or devices that measure the extremely fast “ticking” of atoms.

The quantum incubator will be located in BioMed Realty’s Flatiron Park at 5555 Central Ave. in Boulder. Flatiron Park, a hub for life science and technology innovation, consists of 23 buildings and more than 1 million square feet of lab and office space.