This spring, Rosi Reed is scrambling more than usual. A nuclear physicist at Lehigh University, she’s teaching a class on electrodynamics, advising 30 undergraduates, and supervising a postdoc and three graduate students. Now, Reed is also trying to figure out how to apply for funding from the Genesis Mission, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) push into artificial intelligence (AI).

By 28 April, 2026 just 6 weeks after the agency announced $293 million in Genesis funding, Reed must think up a project, find partners at one of DOE’s national laboratories or in industry, and survive her own university’s vetting. “This seems crazy,” she says. “Why didn’t they give us 6 months?” Thousands of other researchers seem to share her apprehension. On 26 March, nearly 5000 of them logged into a webinar in which DOE officials explained the proposal requirements and took questions. Some researchers fear that if they don’t get Genesis money, they may lose funding entirely.

Source https://www.science.org/content/article/department-energy-s-ai-push-squeezes-funding-research-grants

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