The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through its Nuclear Physics (NP) program, is announcing a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for research and development (R&D) initiatives focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). 

This funding, which is around US$22 million, aims to support the autonomous optimization and control of accelerators and detectors relevant to current and next-generation NP accelerator facilities and scientific instrumentation, as well as applications of AI/ML to enhance nuclear physics computations.

“The approach for this NOFO is to support the development and application of AI/ML in all research areas of NP to expand and accelerate scientific reach and discovery. Opportunities include AI to address challenges in autonomous control, efficiency of operation of accelerators and scientific instruments, digital twinning for future colliders, efficient extraction of critical information from large complex data sets and enabling data-driven discovery of new physics,” DOE said in a notice.