Federal agencies have committed more than $5 billion to an Energy Department-led effort to use artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific research, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios announced Wednesday.
The funding marks one of the clearest signs yet of the Trump administration’s effort to reshape federal science spending, steering research dollars toward AI-powered projects and individual researchers rather than institutions such as universities that have traditionally dominated federally funded research. Some of the awardees included researchers at universities.
From over 5,000 applications, 278 projects were selected to receive funding from the initiative, which is known as the Genesis Mission, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at a Wednesday summit.
“Through the Genesis Mission, we are bringing together the nation’s leading researchers, institutions, and technology partners to build the next generation of scientific capability,” Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said in a statement.
Asked how he would measure the initiative’s success, Gil pointed to advances in quantum computing, the development of strong open-source and frontier models, growth in the number of early-career scientists and the construction of advanced AI supercomputers.
The awards span biomedical research, energy grid reliability, national security, quantum computing and microelectronics manufacturing, among others.
The largest is a $60 million investment that seeks to use AI tools to launch nuclear energy facilities and cut operating costs.
The Genesis Mission was established by a November executive order and is seen as part of a larger shift in the federal government’s involvement in scientific research, Krastios said at the summit.
In a report released Tuesday and titled “Science: A New Golden Age,” Krastios encouraged government funding for research to be increasingly allocated to the use of AI and individual researchers rather than universities, which have historically been the center of scholarship.
“The Genesis Mission, in particular, is the culmination of the reforms suggested in that report,” Krastios said Wednesday.
