R&D Management

DOE to fund only multi-university teams in fiscal 2027 for basic accelerator research, ending single-PI awards, as it picks 14 projects for $15 million.

Jellyfish data from 1,300 companies: agents touch 27.7% of pull requests at the median company, while software factories open 0.0% at nine in 10.

An Annals of Internal Medicine analysis found 87.5% of organizational comments opposed OMB’s grant rule, with research groups opposed at about 93%.

Anthropic’s S-1 shows $9.74B of first-half R&D, more than any big U.S. drugmaker’s ongoing R&D, and $14.2B over 12 months, near Eli Lilly’s.

Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark told the IMF the singularity has begun and AI could put a billion virtual scientists to work if labs can test the results.

NSF funded 17 near-market VINES wireless projects, about $76 million against a $33 million target, while its basic research track came in under target.

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…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) said Oct. 8 they will collaborate on metascience, the use of scientific methods to study how research is funded and conducted. The agencies said they will explore cooperation, including on data analysis and coordinated experiments. The UKRI has already trialed new ways of reviewing…

In ophthalmic surgery, surgeons are often clear about what they want from a new technology. But in my experience, what they ask for is not always the same as what they need. A surgeon may come with a proposed feature, an instrument modification or a different way for a surgical system to behave. That input…

The global pecking order of countries spending the most on research was once relatively stable. In the previous order, the U.S. spent the most, China the second and countries like Germany, Japan and South Korea rounded out the next tier. But the order is shifting. Now, China is on top based on purchasing power parity…

Delivering laboratory buildings within tight budgets remains a challenge, particularly for developer-led projects where cost certainty is critical. Early planning decisions shape upfront costs and long-term adaptability. Establishing parameters early helps control capital investment without limiting future usability. Integrating cost estimation consultants, construction managers, and general contractors early in the design process is a key…

Cody Somers, lead technician at Kennametal, Inc., is the 2026 R&D 100 Technician of the Year. Having worked at the industrial technology and manufacturing company Kennametal since 2015, Somers has more than a decade of hands-on experience with tungsten carbide manufacturing processes. At Kennametal, Somers serves as a lead operator for multiple industrial-scale additive-manufacturing systems.…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) rescinded a rule that prohibited the use of “criteria or methods of administration which have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination because of their race, color or national origin.”  In the rule change, the NSF removed the words “or effect” from a rule that prohibited aid recipients from making selections of sites or locations of facilities “with…

R&D leaders entered 2026 with little doubt that generative AI would reshape how innovation gets done. The uncertainty now lies elsewhere: how much value is actually being created, and where? Despite widespread investment and executive pressure to accelerate adoption, a clear majority of R&D leaders we surveyed say that their current level of GenAI integration…

First-time lab developers succeed not by replicating existing models, but by intentionally building flexible, partnership-driven discovery ecosystems that align tenants, infrastructure and market timing. As demand for science and research space grows and traditional office markets soften, developers are increasingly exploring laboratory and advanced manufacturing projects to diversify their portfolios. Entering the life sciences market, however, presents unique…

One year after nearly 500 National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees signed a letter warning that political interference was threatening the agency’s mission, the authors of a new report say the situation has only gotten worse.  “The chaos of 2025 has been replaced with coordinated, systematic, institutionalized destruction in 2026,” the Bethesda Declaration: One Year…

WTWH Media, the parent company of R&D World, has announced that it has renamed itself Arrowfly. The change applies to the corporate entity. R&D World keeps its name, its URL, its newsletters, its editorial staff and its archives. The Cleveland-based company operates more than 40 B2B media brands and more than 45 industry events across…

The NSF’s new draft policy simultaneously requires researchers to publish open access immediately and proposes to eliminate the grant funding that pays for it at many journals, but fails to define exactly which publication costs are allowed.  The NSF is renewing and revising its financial assistance policies and procedures document, renaming the longstanding Proposal and…

Over the past year, the AI-eats-software camp, which includes sell-side strategists at Jefferies and, more cautiously, analysts at Bain, has warned that generative AI could eat into the seat-based Software as a Service (SaaS) model. In some respects, those fears have been justified. After Anthropic released plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent earlier in 2026,…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a formal Request for Information (RFI) regarding a proposal to limit the number of Research Project Grants (RPGs) an individual investigator can hold simultaneously. The agency is considering caps ranging from two to four grants per Principal Investigator (PI) or Multi-Principal Investigator (MPI).  A cap of four…

The Trump administration has reclassified approximately 8,000 senior-level career officials across 54 agencies to Schedule Policy/Career, formerly Schedule F, status. The move strips the employees of standard civil service job protections, making it easier to remove them from their positions. Approximately 97% of those reclassified hold GS-15 or senior leadership positions. Agencies can remove Schedule…

Continuing a Biden-era push accelerated by the Trump administration, the NIH is making research findings available to the public and requiring NIH-funded researchers to deposit the author-accepted version of their peer-reviewed manuscript in PubMed Central (PMC) and make it available at the time of publication. Many publishers enforce a six to 12-month embargo period before…

Under the leadership of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services has endured the departure of top officials at the CDC, FDA and NIH as well as significant staff reductions across the agency. This could erode American science as scientists look to move abroad. More than 75% of scientists who…

The National Science Foundation is channeling $1.5 billion over the next decade into independent research teams. Focus areas include quantum systems and next-generation scientific instruments. The news comes even as the agency navigates proposed budget cuts that would slash its funding by more than half and a grant pipeline that has slowed dramatically under the…

More R&D-heavy companies are going into debt. SpaceX? Racked up $23 billion in debt in 2025. Its xAI subsidiary, itself funded through loans, stands to repay $17.5 billion in debt. Microsoft? While it has retained its “AAA” credit rating, its stock has tumbled 12% year to date, partly over spending concerns. The company, which is…