Making time for quantum innovation

Many universities have the necessary intellectual capital on campus to get interdisciplinary research projects off the ground. But such projects take more than research talent alone. They need an institutional structure and support. Above all, they need time to develop. Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice-chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), believes time is the “most critical resource” for interdisciplinary scientists.

“The challenge is inherent to having these different disciplines, talking and co-creating, and advancing science,” says Ruzzene. “There’s always a barrier on scientific language and expertise. It takes time to overcome. It is not enough to say an engineer should work with a medical doctor. They come in from different scientific backgrounds. They work differently. They have different formalism, language and knowledge, and so that takes time to overcome.”

CU Boulder has taken some very deliberate steps to foster interdisciplinary innovation on campus, such as its New Frontiers Grant programme, which was established to support high-impact interdisciplinary projects. In 2020, it founded the AB Nexus programme to expand cross-disciplinary collaborations between its Boulder and University of Colorado Anschutz campuses, offering seed funding and support. The CUbit Quantum Initiative was created as an umbrella programme to capitalise on the institution’s considerable expertise in quantum, inviting collaborations with faculty from engineering, applied mathematics and chemistry, and also with regional partners in education and industry.

Ruzzene says the CUbit initiative has been “instrumental” in getting large projects off the ground, such as the NSF Q-SEnSE institute, which facilitates ambitious collaborations in advanced quantum sensing, and the National Quantum Nanofab, which is forecasted to open by 2028, whereupon it will be dedicated to applying quantum science to real-world technologies. CU Boulder has also established a quantum incubator with its partners to offer early-stage quantum companies state-of-the-art facilities to develop their products.

Not only do these initiatives bring out the best in the research talent already on campus but they also help CU Boulder recruit top-class scientists from afar. “They see that there is a place where they can tap into an interdisciplinary network and build their expertise and their career in quantum,” says Ruzzene. “We had some strong recruitments in this area that I would say have been transformational for the campus.”

Ruzzene acknowledges the challenges facing early career scientists who want to collaborate across disciplines. Higher education needs to develop incentive structures to encourage them and a structure to support them. “We need to make sure that these collaborations get recognised in terms of career advancement,” he says. “We are talking more about the tenure system in the US, and that’s been top of mind for me. It has been driven by people having demonstrated individual accomplishments. I think we need to shift away from that and be open to people working in teams.”

This is an industry-wide issue. But Ruzzene is hopeful. The lesson he takes from the AB Nexus and New Frontiers Grant programme is that universities can actively improve the environment for interdisciplinary science, creating the space where it can thrive.

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