In the US, its (military-industrial complex) companies that put money into QD research. The DOE (seems to me) acts as a middleman facilitating access to research for corporations. I say this because it is hard for small companies to break into the funding cycle, but large ones have the resources, time and money to go after funding. The Catch-22 is that if you are not in the funding program, you don't exist to them.

Europe loves consortiums that focus on science objectives, and Russia also have growing nanotech ambitions.

China is autocratic and not surprising that they can develop plans and enforce their efforts by government decree. They are also ready to spend what's needed to gain long-term future advantages. Is there another government that puts their money where their mouth is like they do?

The US NNI NSI ideals and plans flourished under Obama, but the solution by committee didn't look beyond existing players, who never really worked together and are primarily self-interested. DOE is great at issuing reports, but does not have strong influence on government policy, which is very political.

The US is putting some money into quantum dot research, but government budgets and personnel are being cut now as the US discounts the future. There are 17 DOE National Labs doing yeoman's work, but often it is like Sisyphus' work.

examples of recent news --

http://today.lbl.gov/2016/12/21/doe-report-on...available/

https://neutrons.ornl.gov/science/quantum-materials

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/after-...-computers

https://futurism.com/the-doe-is-giving-berkel...-research/