On 24 November 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order launching the Genesis Mission, a national effort to use AI to transform scientific research and accelerate discovery, comparing the initiative in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project. The Department of Energy will lead the effort by leveraging the National Laboratories to unite America's brightest minds, most powerful computers, and vast scientific data into one cooperative system for research.
The Genesis Mission charges the Secretary of Energy with meeting several strict deadlines: 60 days to identify 20 high-priority challenges, 90 days to catalogue all computing resources, 120 days to set out a plan for harnessing federal and research institute data, and 270 days to demonstrate progress on at least one challenge. Top priorities include breakthroughs in fusion energy, advanced nuclear reactors, electric-grid modernisation, new materials, quantum computing, and lifesaving medicines. According to Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, the initiative will shorten discovery timelines from years to days or even hours. The administration portrayed the effort as the government's most ambitious marshalling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo space missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s, though the order does not set out a defined budget at a moment when federal agencies have seen massive cuts to research grants and funding.
The Genesis Mission represents a significant federal commitment to AI-driven scientific discovery, establishing concrete timelines and priorities across critical technology sectors. By integrating the world's largest collection of federal scientific datasets to train foundation models and create AI agents, the initiative aims to automate research workflows and test new hypotheses at unprecedented speed. The absence of a defined budget amid widespread research funding cuts raises questions about implementation, yet the structured approach with specific deliverables within 270 days signals a serious attempt to position America at the forefront of AI-accelerated scientific breakthroughs.
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Sources:
1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-unveils-the-genesis-missionto-accelerate-ai-for-scientific-discovery/
2. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/launching-the-genesis-mission/
3. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-orders-genesis-mission-to-advance-ai-breakthroughs/
4. https://fortune.com/2025/11/25/trump-white-house-genesis-mission-ai-scientific-breakthroughs/
