This week, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan continued making significant strides toward fostering innovation and collaboration.

On Tuesday, Panchanathan participated in the Quantum World Congress. He spoke about how the U.S. is poised to lead the global quantum revolution, underscoring NSF's investments in infrastructure and quantum research to propel innovation forward.

On Wednesday, the director joined the State of the Science Ecosystem roundtable alongside host Steve Clemons, contributing editor, publisher and editor of The Washington Note; Sudip Parikh, CEO and executive publisher of Science Family of Journals at AAAS; and Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America. Panchanathan emphasized the importance of federal investments in science and private-sector collaborations to maintain a strong U.S. science and technology ecosystem.

Additionally, NSF announced a $10.5 million investment in Ideas Lab projects via the NSF Advancing Research Capacity at HBCUs through Exploration and Innovation (ARC-HBCU) opportunity. The Ideas Lab will bolster the research capacity at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). "The inaugural NSF ARC-HBCU Ideas Lab is a unique opportunity to connect talent and build research networks across our HBCUs to further advance an integrated and collaborative vision for the most critical research capacity needs of HBCUs," said Panchanathan.