Established by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), the Center for Quantum Devices opened June 1, 2012 in the H.C. Ørsted Institute, bldg. 3, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. This building is also home to the Nano-Science Center.

In addition to being a DNRF 'Center of Excellence', QDev is part of the Condensed Matter Physics group at the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), which means that several of its staff are permanent faculty members at the NBI, cooperating on the delivery of the physics and nano-science curriculum at the bachelor's and master's level, and contributing to the overall teaching and research aims of the NBI.