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The Genesis Mission is moving from concept to execution, fueled by undeniable momentum. At our first annual Genesis Mission Summit, nearly 700 leaders from government, academia, industry, and philanthropy united under a shared goal: accelerating AI-enabled scientific discovery. We celebrated new projects, forged strategic partnerships, explored bold ideas, and demonstrated the remarkable progress achievable through collaboration. In this special edition of The Science Signal, I'm excited to share the announcements and key takeaways from the summit as we continue to scale the Genesis Mission and shape the future of science.
—Darío
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Secretary Chris Wright announced the selection of the inaugural Genesis Mission RFA awardees, featuring 278 projects selected from institutions across all 50 states, bringing together 342 participating organizations. Highlights include a three-year, $60 million investment in nuclear energy to help deliver nuclear facilities faster and safer while providing more affordable energy. Learn more here.
 Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, unveiled over $5 billion in federal commitments and new National Science and Technology Challenges. Leveraging DOE's American Science and Security Platform, more than 15 federal agencies will contribute resources and expertise to tackle major challenges in health, infrastructure, national security, space, and more. Details here.
 The Genesis Mission secured over $800 million in partner commitments from Genesis Mission Consortium members, including computing resources, AI models, cloud infrastructure, scientific expertise, and direct funding. The consortium includes all 17 DOE National Laboratories, five NNSA plants and sites, and 41 industry, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations, and is now expanding to academic institutions. Read more here.
DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization also announced a new $10 million SBIR/STTR funding opportunity to support approximately 40 awards for small businesses driving innovations in biotechnology, quantum computing, advanced materials, and autonomous laboratories. Learn more here.
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During my technical keynote, four renowned scientists joined me to share how AI is actively transforming their fields, from mathematics and imaging to energy systems and national security.
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Terence Tao of UCLA shared, "Mathematics is really being transformed almost by the week," highlighting how AI, formal verification, and new collaborative systems are pushing us into what he calls "an era of proof abundance."
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In the realm of imaging, Laurent Chapon from Argonne National Laboratory noted, "I've never seen a transformation like that in 25 years in scattering facilities," explaining how AI is reducing data analysis from weeks to real time and paving the way for fully autonomous discovery.
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Addressing our critical infrastructure, Hendrik Hamann from Brookhaven National Laboratory explained how AI foundation models can evaluate billions of grid scenarios in minutes to help build a more secure, affordable, and resilient electric grid.
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Lastly, Siva Rajamanickam of Sandia National Laboratories emphasized that with a technology like AI, you can go for better, faster, and cheaper, pointing to how AI and advanced manufacturing compressed the development of Aires Tide, a complex national security flight test vehicle, from years to just months.
 Drawing these insights together, I concluded by laying out the blueprint for the Genesis Mission and how we will succeed—a vision you can watch unfold in the full keynote video here.
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Spotlight: Fireside Chat with Ambassador Shiego Yamada
A major summit highlight was a fireside chat with Ambassador Shigeo Yamada of Japan and Harriet Kung, Deputy Director for Science Programs in the Office of Science, reflecting on the growing U.S.-Japan partnership. As the first international partner of the Genesis Mission, Japan is investing alongside the U.S. to advance joint projects in quantum, biotechnology, fusion, and advanced materials. Emphasizing that this alliance is rooted in decades of scientific collaboration and mutual trust, Ambassador Yamada described the mission as "a perfect match" with Japan's own AI for Science initiative, shifting from project-by-project collaboration to an enduring innovation partnership that unites National Laboratories, universities, industries, and startups across the Pacific. Watch the fireside chat here.
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The summit also featured engaging panel discussions and a demonstration of the Genesis Mission Platform, showcasing the ideas, technologies, and partnerships driving the mission forward.
During a panel hosted by U.S. Chief Technology Officer Ethan Klein, leaders from NASA, NIH, NSF, and DOW discussed their participation in the Genesis Mission, with each agency tackling a variety of unique national challenges. Examples of these efforts include NIH addressing pediatric cancer by integrating its data ecosystem with supercomputers to analyze rare subtypes; NASA securing American space leadership by partnering with DOE to accelerate mission readiness through AI and advanced computing; NSF advancing research infrastructure by initiating a national network of AI-programmable cloud laboratories; and DOW driving industrial and defense capabilities with projects to accelerate weapons component design and scale biological discoveries. Watch the panel here.
 Genesis Mission Technical Director Brian Spears demoed the Genesis Mission Platform, showing how it unites frontier AI models, agents, scientific data, and supercomputers. The demo illustrated how researchers can seamlessly move from a question to AI-generated hypotheses, simulations, experiments, and analysis in a single workflow. Watch the demo here.
 Secretary Wright moderated a panel with leaders from Reflection AI, Google, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, emphasizing the need to connect National Labs, academia, and industry. Panelists discussed modernizing research infrastructure, unlocking scientific data, preparing the next generation, and shortening discovery timelines to deliver faster real-world outcomes. Watch the discussion here.
 I moderated a conversation with Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Mark Warner (D-VA) on sustaining the mission and accelerating STEM education. Key topics included bipartisan legislation to shorten the path to a Ph.D. and the importance of codifying the Genesis Mission into law for long-term national impact. Watch our conversation here.
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My sincere thanks to the DOE federal staff who evaluated over 5,000 RFA submissions—the largest response to a DOE funding opportunity in history—to help us select 278 outstanding projects, as well as to everyone who participated in making the inaugural Genesis Mission Summit a success. I am excited to carry this collective momentum forward and see what our research teams and partners achieve together.
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