The Department of Energy (DOE) on July 22 announced the first 278 projects selected under its Genesis Mission, an initiative to supercharge AI-driven science that federal officials have compared to the Manhattan Project and the Apollo program.
The projects are part of the government-wide push to harness artificial intelligence for scientific discovery and national defense unveiled last year by President Donald Trump.
Some $293 million in research funding is available through the Genesis Mission, with the initial request for applications drawing the largest response to a funding opportunity in the agency’s history, DOE said.
DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) National Laboratories will lead 87 of the 278 projects, while 168 are led by universities, 19 by companies, and four by nonprofit organizations.
DOE officials said the research “will address some of the nation’s most pressing energy, scientific, and engineering challenges,” in areas such as nuclear energy, critical mineral extraction, intelligent chip design, and commercial fusion energy.
A list of the projects released by DOE showed that they cover topics ranging from “AI-driven discovery of electrochemical separation methods for rare earth elements” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to “AI-Driven, Self-Learning Digital Twins for Robust Operation of Particle Accelerators” at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The largest project selected is a three-year, $60 million investment in nuclear energy that DOE said will harness AI to provide affordable, reliable and secure energy by helping to “deliver nuclear facilities faster and safer while cutting operating costs.”
Although DOE released little additional information, several laboratories and universities announced on their own that they had been selected for the Genesis Mission.
Among them are Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California, which will lead 13 projects including “Safely Storing Nuclear Waste with Advanced 3D Models,” and Princeton University, where four faculty members will spearhead projects such as one aimed at accelerating the prediction of space weather events and another to speed the development of commercial fusion power by building a multi-modal, multi-device AI model.
At the University of Texas at Austin, five teams will lead or partner in efforts to design and demonstrate research workflows that integrate AI with scientific investigation, while Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico will lead seven projects that include “an autonomous AI framework for closed-loop nuclear fuel qualification.”
“America has no shortage of bold ideas or talented scientists, and the response to the Genesis Mission proves that,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “The 278 projects selected today represent the very best of our nation’s scientific enterprise.”
Added DOE Under Secretary for Science Dario Gil, the former director of IBM Research who is leading the Genesis Mission: “The extraordinary response to this Genesis Mission application process demonstrates that America’s scientific community is ready to reimagine how discovery happens. 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.”
Trump launched the initiative in an executive order he signed last year, directing the energy secretary to create a “cooperative system for research” by partnering with industry, academia, and other scientific institutions on a digital platform powered by AI. The goal is to boost AI-powered research and development by turning government data into scientific discoveries.
A senior DOE official in June had previewed the announcement of the 278 projects.
Speaking at IBM Think Gov 2026, DOE Chief of Staff Carl Coe said that while DOE typically receives a few hundred responses to major research solicitations, the first Genesis Mission solicitation generated approximately 5,000 submissions.
Coe said the Genesis Mission is “on par with” the Manhattan Project and the Apollo program.
“When it’s complete, it will be the most powerful and innovative scientific tool ever created,” he added.