NSF Awards Boston University Nearly $20 Million to Advance National Cloud Lab Network
Adapted from a story by Andrew Thurston for The Brink
Boston University has been awarded nearly $20 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to help establish the National Cloud Lab Network, a nationwide system of AI-enabled, programmable laboratories that will transform how science and engineering research is conducted. Through the NSF Test Bed: Toward a Network of Programmable Cloud Laboratories (PCL Test Bed) initiative, BU will help develop and evaluate the technologies, standards, and workflows needed to build a remotely accessible network of cloud laboratories that accelerates discovery and expands access to advanced research capabilities.
The four-year award supports project CLAIRE (Cloud Lab with AI-Integrated Remote Experimentation), a pilot cloud laboratory that will explore new approaches for autonomous experimentation, remote access, and AI-driven scientific workflows.
The project is led by Principal Investigators Douglas Densmore, Founding Director of the Design, Automation, Manufacturing, Processes (DAMP) Lab and Professor of Engineering (ECE, BME and MSE); Yannis Paschalidis, Director of the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Engineering (ECE, SE, BME), Computing & Data Sciences, and Biostatistics; and Keith Brown, Division Head of Materials Science & Engineering and Professor of Engineering (ME, MSE, Physics). Together, the BU team and their external collaborators bring expertise spanning cloud laboratories, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, materials science, and autonomous experimentation.
The award also builds on collaborative research supported by the Hariri Institute’s Focused Research Program (FRP), From Self-Driving Labs to Community-Driven Labs, led by Brown. The program demonstrated the feasibility of shared autonomous research infrastructure and helped inform approaches to community-accessible cloud laboratories, complementing the DAMP Lab’s longstanding leadership in laboratory automation and programmable experimentation.
By contributing both technical innovation and interdisciplinary expertise, Boston University is helping shape a national research infrastructure that will make AI-enabled experimentation more accessible, collaborative, and scalable. The National Cloud Lab Network is expected to accelerate discoveries across disciplines while strengthening U.S. leadership in automated science and engineering for years to come.
Find the full story on The Brink:
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2026/nsf-awards-20-million-establish-national-cloud-lab-network/
Read the NSF Announcement:
https://www.nsf.gov/tip/updates/nsf-announces-400m-investment-new-national-network-ai
Read the NSF Award Project Page:
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award?AWD_ID=2607506