DOE adds 12 Phase II Genesis Mission projects and six more Phase I awards

The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced 12 new Phase II and six Phase I projects for the Genesis Mission. These cap the first-year cohort at 297 projects, the department said in a press release.

President Trump launched the Genesis Mission in November 2025, and DOE runs it. The plan connects DOE’s supercomputers, scientific data and national labs into one AI platform for research. Its funding call targets more than 20 national challenges in areas such as advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear energy and quantum science.

The new projects bring the Phase II total to 14, including the previously announced GridFM 2.0 and Prometheus. The 12 new projects will split $159 million from DOE.

The new Phase II projects are:

• SPARC fusion digital twin: Thomas Looby, Commonwealth Fusion Systems. An AI digital twin to simulate and optimize the company’s SPARC fusion demonstration device.
• RNA structurome: Navtej Toor, UC San Diego. Expands the RNA structure database five-fold to train AI models for engineering crops and microbes.
• Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at the Intelligence Frontier: William Detmold, MIT. Pairs AI with supercomputer calculations of fundamental particle physics.
• MAESTRO, AI for geothermal reservoirs: Mohammad Abdolhosseini Qomi, UC Irvine. An AI platform for mapping and managing deep underground reservoirs for geothermal energy.
• AXIS, rare-earth separations: Xiao Su, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Uses AI to design molecules for electrochemically extracting rare-earth elements.
• Computational enzyme design: David Baker, University of Washington. AI tools to predict and design working enzymes, checked with lab tests and X-ray structures.
• AXESS, chips for extreme environments: Nhan Tran, Fermilab. Uses AI to speed the design of chips that must work in extreme cold and radiation.
• MOAT-Core, AI for particle accelerators: Jean-Luc Vay, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Extends Osprey, an AI assistant for running particle accelerators, to more facilities and to accelerator design.
• ASQC, quantum error correction: Mikhail Lukin, Harvard. Pairs AI with quantum hardware to cut the overhead of quantum error correction.
• AI4HPC, AI for scientific software: Andrew Siegel, Argonne National Laboratory. AI to help update, optimize and verify supercomputer science software, including on Aurora.
• Functional quantum magnets: Yongqiang Cheng, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Uses AI to design magnetic materials with targeted quantum properties, then makes and tests them.
• Agentic operations at FRIB’s rare isotope separator: Ayan Paul, Northeastern University. An automated assistant to tune and operate the facility’s rare isotope separator.

DOE’s March request for applications let teams apply directly to either phase in fiscal 2026. Phase I awards receive $500,000 to $750,000 for nine months of work. Phase II awards receive $6 million to $15 million over three years. DOE did not announce how much each project will receive.

National labs lead four of the new Phase II projects, which span fusion, biology, particle physics, geothermal energy, critical minerals, microelectronics and quantum computing.

Two national labs frame their awards as continuations of ongoing work. Argonne says its awards “build on Argonne’s earlier Phase I Genesis Mission projects.” Argonne is part of five of the new Phase II projects, leading one and partnering on four others.

Oak Ridge describes its projects as “building on work initiated during Genesis Mission Phase I.” Oak Ridge leads nine Phase I projects, and its researchers are partners on 32 more. It leads one of the new Phase II projects and is a partner on five others.

Berkeley Lab, which leads MOAT-Core, had Genesis Mission funding for its accelerator work months before the July Phase I round, the lab said in December 2025.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems said its project expands on digital twin groundwork it started with Nvidia and Siemens. It is the only private company leading a Phase II project.

Phase II applications from the July Phase I teams are due Dec. 17, though DOE says that date may shift. DOE has not said how many Phase II slots are available for that cohort.