For over 15 years, the EFRC program has provided a transformational research environment that has brought together the strengths of our National Laboratories and universities to accelerate discovery, develop innovative tools, and train the next generation of the American energy science workforce. The EFRCs will continue to play a vital role in bridging disciplines and institutions, advancing foundational science and strengthening America's leadership to push forward scientific frontiers critical for new energy technologies.
The fewer solicitations you have, the less time grant applicants have to figure out which of our pigeonholes they fit into. In the past, a solicitation might have been for an individual program, which means it's attached to an individual program officer and a specific dollar amount. Now, instead of going to one program officer's area, the NSF will use technology to better route applications to wherever within the agency they can best be reviewed.
These aren't optional programs - these are investments approved by bipartisan majorities in Congress, and the President doesn't get to cancel them simply because he disagrees with them," Bonta told reporters Wednesday.
Brugge and her research team have analyzed the cell structure of more than 100 samples. Using high-powered microscopes and complex computer algorithms, they diagram each stage in the development of breast cancer: from the first sign of cell mutation to the formation of tiny clusters, well before they are large enough to be considered tumors. Their quest is to prevent breast cancer, a disease that afflicts roughly 1 in 8 U.S. women over their lifetimes, as well as some men.
In the last several weeks of 2025 alone, nuclear startups raised $1.1 billion, largely on investor optimism that smaller nuclear reactors will succeed where the broader industry has recently stumbled. Traditional nuclear reactors are massive pieces of infrastructure. The newest reactors built in the U.S. - Vogtle 3 and 4 in Georgia - contain tens of thousands of tons of concrete, are powered by fuel assemblies 14 feet tall, and generate over 1 gigawatt of electricity each.
Scientists are increasingly turning to artificial-intelligence systems for help drafting the grant proposals that fund their careers, but preliminary data indicate that these tools might be pulling the focus of research towards safe, less-innovative ideas. These data provide evidence that AI-assisted proposals submitted to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are consistently less distinct from previous research than ones written without the use of AI - and are also slightly more likely to be funded.
Solar and wind power provided more electricity than coal and gas last year, leading a global trend, said think tank Ember. Solar and wind power outperformed fossil fuels in the European Union for the first time last year, a new high watermark on Europe's transition to green and autonomous energy. The two sources of energy generated 30 percent of EU electricity, compared with 29 percent for coal and gas, Ember, a global energy think tank, said on Thursday in its European Electricity Review.
In October, Ørsted raised $9 billion from investors in a rights issue after Trump's attempts to block a rival developer's project spooked investors. The US government then issued a stop-work order against the company's $1.5 billion Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island, although Ørsted has persuaded a judge to lift the order. In November, Ørsted agreed to sell half of the world's largest offshore wind farm to Apollo in a $6.5 billion deal.
For nearly 100 years, the United States has been the world's leader in a wide variety of scientific fields. No other country has: invested as much in fundamental scientific research, has made more scientific breakthroughs and scientific advances, has attracted more scientific researchers to move there to conduct their research, or has conducted more projects and been home to more scientists that have won Nobel Prizes.
NASA is quietly ending financial support for independent planetary science advisory groups, according to a letter posted to the agency's website on January 16. The affected groups have historically offered feedback to the space agency on science efforts ranging from the exploration of Mars and ocean worlds to the storage of extraterrestrial samples, and more. According to the letter, signed by Louise Prockter, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, funding to support these Analysis and Assessment Groups will end toward the end of April 2026.
