The U.S. National Science Foundation today announced plans to launch a series of programs and initiatives to support the ambitious vision articulated in the White House report Science: A New Golden Age , the first comprehensive rethinking of the U.S. science and technology enterprise in the last 80+ years.
These new programs and initiatives combined with the $1.5 billion in investments announced in August will help the agency improve how it evaluates and supports science, harness super intelligence to accelerate discovery, and invest in exceptional students and early-career researchers.
NSF is establishing an Office of Metascience to serve as a testbed for studying how scientific communities respond to novel review and funding mechanisms, applying those lessons learned to NSF programs to accelerate discovery.
The office will operate with full transparency, sharing its experiments and findings with academia, industry, and philanthropy.
A job announcement for the head of the Office of Metascience will be forthcoming.
In addition, both UK Research and Innovation and NSF intend to build on the metascience principles that the United States has outlined in the “ Kyoto Vision for a Golden Age of Science ,” and that both agencies have articulated in, respectively, the “ NSF Leadership in a New Golden Age of Science ” memorandum and the UKRI Strategy 2026-31.
NSF is launching two Grand Research Challenge prize competitions to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration, attract nontraditional entrants, and form cross-sector teams to spur rapid advances in scientific understanding in crucial areas of science and technology.
The first is the Quantum+X GRC that will accelerate quantum innovation for sectors like energy, biotechnology, and finance.
U.S. participants will be invited to compete and showcase algorithm and application solutions that could redefine what quantum technology makes possible.
Through an NSF partnership with industry, competing teams will be able to develop solutions to sector-relevant problems that will not only impact the economy but also advance solutions to fundamental questions in fields such as chemistry, mathematics, and materials science.
The second is the Synthetic Multicellularity Prize Grand Challenge Prize, a competition that will transform the ability to design biology.
U.S. participants will be invited to compete in a multistage challenge to showcase new computational and experimental approaches in synthetic and engineering biology that expand capabilities to incorporate complexity and regulation into the design of multicellular systems.
The results of this competition will advance our understanding of cell biology, development, and aging, and lead to new applications across sectors from medicine to biomanufacturing.
NSF is also launching the new NSF X-Labs Consortium with an initial set of founding partners representing over $300 million in commitments, supporting teams with floor space, instrument access, and direct support.
This consortium is designed to provide resources to NSF X-Labs , a new generation of organizations enabling independent teams of researchers, technologists, and entrepreneurs pursuing milestone-based federal funding to solve specific scientific and technological challenges.
The founding partners include research institutions, advanced computing centers, philanthropy, and industry, which will provide critical resources such as access to physical space, scientific instruments and infrastructure, and expertise, to catalyze and expedite the impact of the NSF X-Labs initiative.
In addition, in collaboration with several industry and philanthropic partners, NSF will soon release a funding opportunity tied to the NSF Programmable Cloud Laboratories Network announced in July 2026, with a specific focus on the development of Super Intelligence-Native Instruments.
The eventual SINI awardees will enhance NSF PCLNet by incorporating instruments specifically designed for the modern era of data and super intelligence in their designs and architecture, meaning that the instruments are digital-first.
This re-envisioning signals a significant advance in the automation of science and engineering solutions and the era of super intelligence-driven scientific discovery and innovation.
NSF anticipates an investment of up to $75 million over the next five years.
Science: A New Golden Age makes clear the imperative to identify and develop the exceptionally talented Americans who will serve as the vanguard of U.S. S&T global leadership in the coming decades.
To support those goals, NSF is investing in the National Math Stars and NextGen Workforce to open more scientific and technical career pathways for more talented Americans.
NSF's investment of $30 million over four years in National Math Stars , fully matched by private philanthropy will help National Math Stars grow its existing talent identification and development programs and support the design and testing of a scalable digital platform to assist families in supporting children to achieve their full potential in math.
NSF's investment in National Math Stars follows from NSF's strong legacy of supporting promising young scientific talent through the NSF Young Scholars Program.
The NextGen Workforce program will help students earning STEM graduate degrees enter the workforce faster than ever before.
The program will develop new accelerated bachelor's to doctoral degree programs and innovative, interdisciplinary graduate training programs that provide direct support for enrolled students to enable them to meet critical and emerging national STEM workforce needs.
More details about all these programs and initiatives will be available in the coming days.