The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to provide up to $12 million for basic research on advanced 5G and quantum networking.

The two efforts launched by DOE are aimed at harnessing current and future networking capabilities to build on DOE’s 40-plus-year investments in the Energy Science Network (ESnet), a research network connecting all DOE National Laboratories and scientific user facilities.

The goal is to use advanced networking to accelerate progress in science and technology.

Under this announcement, up to $6 million will be devoted to transforming or enhancing scientific research by using advanced 5G wireless networking technologies to build the tools, applications, and infrastructure needed to explore new scientific discoveries.

Along with field experiments and remote laboratories, every aspect of DOE’s science research will be affected by 5G, which has the potential to completely renovate the nation’s information infrastructure. Applications for the 5G awards will be open to DOE laboratories.

An additional $6 million will be allocated to advance understanding of how quantum entanglement, a state in which the behavior of two different particles are linked, operates in quantum networks, to aid in the development of future quantum networks.

Applications for quantum networking awards will be open to universities and nonprofit institutions as well DOE laboratories.