The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Chicago Quantum Exchange have launched a start-up accelerator program focused on quantum science and technology companies. The program, known as Duality, is also backed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and private-sector-led non-profit P33 as founding partners.
The Chicago area is home to three of eight federally funded quantum information science research centers and institutes.
With a $20 million investment, Duality will help up to 10 quantum startups per year grow their businesses in the Chicago area. The program will be based within the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Chicago Booth is widely known for its thought leadership – with nine Nobel laureates – and its impact on the global business community.
“Argonne is excited to partner with our academic and industrial collaborators as we make the Chicago region a focal point of quantum innovation,” Argonne Laboratory Director Paul Kearns said. “Duality will provide inventors and entrepreneurs from across the U.S. the powerful facilities, tools, and talent that are needed to move transformative discoveries into applications. This will inspire an even more robust environment for future innovations, which will help maintain American scientific leadership in quantum science and technology.”
