USDA and NSF launch new AI research initiatives under the Genesis Mission

The federal government took a major step this week in advancing the Genesis Mission, a White House-led initiative launched last year to accelerate scientific discovery through artificial intelligence. The mission brings together federal agencies, national laboratories, universities, and industry partners to apply AI to some of the nation's most significant scientific and technological challenges. As part of the Genesis Mission, on July 22, the Administration announced more than $5 billion in federal commitments at DOE, DOD, USEPA, NIH, NSF, USDA, and NASA aimed at expanding AI-enabled research capabilities.

For agriculture, USDA announced plans to launch an Agricultural National Science & Technology Challenge through the Genesis Mission and the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA). The challenge will seek AI solutions capable of integrating germplasm, field, imaging, and laboratory data to help researchers identify valuable plant traits and accelerate the development of more productive and resilient crops. At the same time, NSF announced a $400 million investment over four years to establish a nationwide network of 20 AI-enabled programmable cloud laboratories that will support automated experimentation and AI-driven research across multiple scientific disciplines. Both initiatives will leverage the Department of Energy's American Science and Security Platform, which connects researchers with advanced computing resources, scientific instrumentation, datasets, and AI tools.

These projects, along with the full breath of efforts under the FY2027 Research and Development Priorities, were the focus of a House Science Committee hearing with Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios.