NSF PCL-test bed: AI science foundry: a PCL testbed node to accelerate breakthroughs in biology, chemistry, and materials

The National Science Foundation awarded Carnegie Mellon University a $5 million Cooperative Agreement on August 1, 2026, under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to establish the AI Science Foundry as a node in NSF's Programmable Cloud Lab (PCL) Testbed.

The AI Science Foundry will integrate over 80 robotically controlled scientific instruments with AI agents, models, open data, and high-performance computing resources in a unified cybersecure platform for autonomous experimentation in biology, chemistry, and metal alloys. The facility will provide remote and on-site user access to enable researchers, students, educators, and industry users to develop and run AI-guided autonomous experiments with unprecedented scale, speed, and reproducibility, replacing manual trial-and-error processes with rapid design-test-learn cycles.

Carnegie Mellon's facility is housed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a 15,000-square-foot Biological and Chemical Innovation PCL space. The award funds work through July 31, 2030. The Cooperative Agreement assistance type indicates a partnership relationship where NSF and Carnegie Mellon share management responsibility and decision-making authority over the project.

Abstract

NSF PCL-test bed: AI science foundry: a PCL testbed node to accelerate breakthroughs in biology, chemistry, and materials the AI science foundry at carnegie mellon university will become a node in NSF?s programmable cloud lab (PCL) testbed, expanding remote and on-site user access to one of the nation?s most advanced and comprehensive AI-guided PCL ecosystems for research on biology, chemistry, and metal alloys. IT will integrate over 80 robotically controlled scientific instruments with the latest AI agents and models, open data and high-performance computing resources in a unified cybersecure platform that replaces slow, manual trial-and-error processes with rapid, continuous AI-guided design-test-learn cycles. As a PCL node, the AI science foundry will enable a broad community of researchers, students, educators and industry users to develop, validate, and run many different AI-guided autonomous experiments on this platform with unprecedented scale, speed, and reproducibility. This shift will dramatically shorten the time for scientific discovery and translation from decades to years or months, accelerating breakthroughs in medicine, biotechnology, energy, manufacturing, and transportation. IT will also strengthen the national workforce through education and training in AI, robotics, and data-driven science, ensuring future U.S. Economic competitiveness and national security. This project establishes AI science foundry at carnegie mellon university as a node in NSF?s programmable cloud lab (PCL) testbed, a national infrastructure for AI-guided autonomous experimentation in biology, chemistry, and metal alloys. IT will provide a broad community of users with remote and on-site access to one of the nation?s largest collection of state-of-the-art, CO-located capabilities in the: 1) biological and chemical innovation PCL, a 15,000-SQ-FT facility with over 80 major scientific instruments for synthesis, characterization, and analysis, and 2) metal alloys innovation PCL, a 2,300-SQ-FT facility with instruments for automated metal powder production, alloying, additive manufacturing, and characterization. The modular, open-source accelerating science autonomous platform (asap) integrates these instruments with the latest AI agents and models, robotics, imaging and sensing systems, open data and high-performance computing resources. IT will be used to actively search massive multi-modal data and optimize multiparameter spaces, design and orchestrate AI-guided programmable workflows in parallel and collect the resulting data and metadata with unprecedented scale, speed, and reproducibility. In this project, researchers, students, educators, and industry users will develop, validate, and remotely operate AI-guided closed-loop workflows to dramatically shorten the time for research and translation in critical technology areas from decades to years or months. Initial targets include functional polymers for data centers and robotics; microbial biomaterials for sustainable pigments; organoids for personalized medicine; and high-temperature aluminum alloys for lightweight aircraft engines. IT will also deliver new user workshops, in-depth, hands-on user instruction, and AI-informed and guided programs to scale training for high school students to industry employees. This will accelerate commercialization of innovations in medicine, biotechnology, energy, manufacturing, and transportation and strengthen the national workforce in AI, robotics, and data-driven science, ensuring future U.S. Economic competitiveness and national security. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.