Jefferson Lab to Receive New Funding for Work on Genesis Mission Projects

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today Phase I Request for Application (RFA) funding awards for small interdisciplinary teams to address Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges. DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is a partner on seven projects receiving new funding.

The goal of the Phase I RFA awards is to identify promising pathways toward transformative scientific capabilities and establish a foundation for future investment and scale. Jefferson Lab is a AI/genesis/RFAPhaseIgrants">partner on these projects:

• AI-Driven Expedited Discovery and Background Separation for Petabyte-Scale Streaming Readout led by The Catholic University of America.
• AI-Enabled Digital Twin for Scalable Injector Optimization and Control led by Old Dominion University.
• Transforming Computing Cyber Infrastructure for Collider Experiments to AI Based Computing and AI-ready Data led by DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory.
• Mixture-of-Experts Foundation Models for Scalable Holistic Reconstruction, Modeling, and Interpretation of Particle Interactions led by William & Mary.
• I. Era Spin Physics of Quantum Systems: Real-Time Feedback and Neural Network Optimization of Polarized Targets led by the University of New Hampshire.
• AI-Driven, Self-Learning Digital Twins for Robust Operation of Particle Accelerators led by DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory.
• Physics-Aware Guardrails for Real-Time Integrity Protection of AI-Driven Scientific Workflows led by Old Dominion University.

Project teams will design and demonstrate research workflows that integrate AI with scientific investigation, while rigorously evaluating whether those approaches can accelerate discovery, improve predictive capabilities, enhance experimentation, or generate new scientific insights.

“I can not overemphasis the impact we anticipate from Genesis Mission on research and discovery, and each of the Phase I RFA awards will have significant effect on driving our understanding and lead to knowledge and innovation, and I can see directly how these projects will benefit from the expert knowledge and capabilities that our team at Jefferson Lab will bring to the table,” said Jefferson Lab Director Jens Dilling. “We appreciate this opportunity to apply our staff’s unique skillsets toward these national science priorities, and we are very excited for the Genesis Mission.”

At today’s Genesis Mission Summit, Jefferson Lab staff members' work is featured in highlights of many mission priorities, such as the development of FemtoMind to build and enable AI models for nuclear physics research and research on applying AI to improving efficient operation in particle accelerators, nuclear and particle physics detectors, and scientific user facilities.

The Genesis Mission is a historic national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy, which is building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. By uniting government, industry, academia, and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security through a new platform that combines AI, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced scientific instruments.