FAU Receives $399,964 NSF Grant to Develop Advanced Post-Quantum Cryptography

The National Science Foundation has awarded Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science a $399,964 grant to develop cryptographic protocols that extend beyond the basic encryption standards most governments and companies are currently adopting to defend against quantum computing threats. The three-year project, running from May 15, 2026 through April 30, 2029, will build blind signatures, threshold signatures, multisignatures, and verifiable random functions designed to secure decentralized systems against future quantum attacks.

Project Scope and Leadership

The grant, designated Award No. 2528909, is led by Dr. Edoardo Persichetti, professor of mathematics and statistics and director of FAU's Center for Cryptology and Information Security, alongside co-principal investigator Dr. Veronika Kuchta. The formal grant title is "Collaborative Research: SaTC 2.0: RES: Post-Quantum Cryptographic Protocols with Advanced Functionalities."

The research team brings substantial prior accomplishment to the project. As Quantum Computing Report detailed, FAU researchers contributed to NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptography mechanisms, including the Hamming Quasi-Cyclic (HQC) key encapsulation mechanism and CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM digital signatures. These foundational standards represent the first wave of quantum-safe cryptographic replacements for vulnerable RSA and elliptic-curve systems now protecting most internet traffic. The new NSF initiative moves beyond those baseline mechanisms into more sophisticated protocol territory.

Research Focus and Mathematical Frameworks

The project will investigate algebraic structures spanning multiple mathematical domains. According to the grant details, the team will work with lattices, error-correcting codes, group actions, and isogeny-based frameworks. These mathematical foundations will be combined with zero-knowledge proofs to create protocols with rigorous security proofs against both classical and quantum adversaries.

The specific cryptographic functionalities the team will develop serve distinct purposes in modern digital infrastructure. Blind signatures enable transactions where a signer cannot see the content being signed—critical for privacy-preserving digital currencies and anonymous credentials. Threshold signatures distribute signing authority across multiple parties, requiring a threshold number to approve any operation, which is essential for distributed key management and governance in decentralized systems. Multisignatures allow multiple parties to create a single, compact signature together, reducing bandwidth overhead in blockchain consensus protocols and other distributed ledgers. Verifiable random functions generate cryptographic randomness that can be publicly verified without revealing the underlying random seed, essential for lottery-like consensus mechanisms and fair protocol execution.

Strategic Importance in Quantum-Safe Migration

The timing and scope of this NSF award signal that post-quantum cryptography research is maturing beyond the compliance and standardization phase. NIST's baseline standards, including the HQC and CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM algorithms FAU helped develop, provide organizations with a clear path to swap out vulnerable encryption systems. However, blind signatures, threshold signatures, and verifiable random functions are higher-level building blocks needed for more complex systems that organizations will deploy after the initial migration.

The distinction matters for quantum-safe infrastructure planning. Drop-in replacements for symmetric encryption and basic key encapsulation will be deployed over the next few years as organizations respond to regulatory mandates and risk assessments. But decentralized applications, blockchain networks, and privacy-preserving financial systems require the more sophisticated protocols this FAU team will develop. The NSF's investment in these advanced functionalities suggests federal research agencies expect significant quantum-safe infrastructure demand to emerge within the three-year project timeline and beyond.

Institutional Leadership and Student Training

The NSF award directly supports student mentoring, research experiences, and cybersecurity outreach programs, building FAU's institutional capacity in quantum-safe cryptography research. This training component reflects broader federal priorities to develop a workforce capable of implementing and maintaining post-quantum cryptographic infrastructure across government, industry, and academia.

FAU has already invested in quantum computing infrastructure to support this research direction. The university hosts a D-Wave Advantage2 annealing quantum system at its Boca Raton campus, providing researchers and students with hands-on experience with quantum hardware. While quantum annealing differs from the gate-model quantum computing most relevant to cryptanalysis threats, the installation underscores FAU's commitment to building comprehensive quantum computing and cryptography capabilities.

Project Deliverables and Timeline

Over the three-year period through April 2029, the FAU team will deliver cryptographic protocol specifications, security proofs, and likely prototype implementations. One key milestone to watch is whether the blind signatures, threshold signatures, and multisignatures developed through this project become candidates for future standardization efforts. NIST has established a successful track record with its post-quantum cryptography standardization process, and advanced protocol specifications from well-regarded academic research centers often feed into subsequent standardization rounds.

The research outcomes will have direct applicability across multiple sectors. Privacy-preserving financial technologies, blockchain consensus mechanisms, distributed governance systems, and government security infrastructure all depend on the kinds of advanced cryptographic functionalities this project will deliver. By establishing quantum-safe versions of these protocols now, the research team helps ensure that as quantum computing capabilities advance, the infrastructure protecting distributed and decentralized systems can evolve accordingly.

The FAU grant represents a critical investment in the next phase of post-quantum cryptography deployment. While NIST-standardized basic mechanisms provide the foundation for initial quantum-safe migration, advanced protocols developed through grants like this one will enable organizations to build complex, privacy-preserving, and decentralized systems that can withstand both classical and quantum adversaries.