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Access AQT’s IBEX Q1 on qBraid Lab, enabling researchers and developers to run experiments on fully connected trapped ion quantum hardware
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Chicago, IL – April 27, 2026
The National Quantum Algorithm Center (NQAC) at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) has announced its 2026 Grand Challenges awardees, and qBraid is on the list.
We are proud to be selected alongside Professor Bryan Clark at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and BP for a project titled Benchmarking Quantum Computing Algorithms for Quantum Chemistry on Industrially Relevant Molecules. The award was covered by The Quantum Insider and Quantum Computing Report on April 24, 2026.
Quantum algorithms have strong potential to simulate chemical reactions for clean fuels development, but practical performance, accuracy, and resource requirements vary widely across approaches. There is no shared yardstick for comparing them on the molecules that actually matter to industry.
Our team will build the technology, workflow, and stack to document and benchmark a range of quantum chemistry simulation methods, focused on molecules central to the fuels sector: methane, ethanol, ethylene, acetaldehyde, and methanol. The output will be an open knowledge graph and a public dataset designed to accelerate community learning and industrial translation.
In short: a reproducible foundation for the field to build on, anchored by a real industry use case.
Three things make this collaboration powerful.
First, it pairs deep algorithmic expertise (Professor Clark's group at UIUC has a long track record in quantum simulation, error mitigation, and the classical-quantum boundary) with a real industrial partner in BP, and an infrastructure layer (qBraid Lab and qBook) that makes results runnable, comparable, and shareable.
Second, the structure of the Grand Challenges program is exactly the kind of three-way collaboration the quantum industry needs more of. Each awardee team brings together academic researchers, a quantum company, and a non-quantum industry end user. That triangle is how research turns into deployed value.
Third, the deliverable is open. An open knowledge graph and a public benchmarking dataset is the right artifact to leave behind. The whole community benefits, not just the partners.
First announced in October 2025 by P33 and the NQAC, the Grand Challenges program funds postdoctoral researchers developing industry relevant quantum applications in Illinois. The program is funded through the generosity of P33, Northwestern University, and the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The five 2026 awardees span clean energy, power grid optimization, quantum chemistry, drug discovery, and materials design, with academic leads from the University of Chicago, UIUC, and Northwestern, and quantum partners including PsiQuantum, IBM, qBraid, and Infleqtion.
Launched in July 2025 during TechChicago Week, the NQAC is a membership organization at IQMP that brings together industry end users, quantum companies, academia, national labs, and partners to advance quantum algorithms and applications that generate value for companies and society. The 128-acre IQMP development broke ground in Fall 2025 on Chicago's South Side and is on track to host PsiQuantum's first utility scale, fault tolerant, million qubit quantum computer.
This is part of a broader Illinois quantum buildout you can track through the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park, and Year of Quantum Illinois 2026.
The team is kicking off project planning now. Expect updates on benchmarking methodology, the early molecule list, and the open knowledge graph as it takes shape. We will share results, code, and data publicly as the work progresses.
A big thank you to the NQAC, IQMP, P33, Northwestern, and DPI for backing this program, to Professor Bryan Clark and his group at UIUC, and to our colleagues at BP. We are excited to get started.
Want to explore the open source SDK powering qBraid's quantum chemistry workflows? 👉 github.com/qBraid/qBraid
About qBraid
qBraid is a hardware agnostic quantum computing platform with over 27,000 developers. With partnerships across IBM, IonQ, Rigetti, QuEra, Atom Computing, AQT, and Microsoft, qBraid brings the full quantum hardware ecosystem together through a single, unified cloud interface. Learn more at qbraid.com.
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