DOE and NSF Interagency Research Act
HB 1350, the DOE and NSF Interagency Research Act, directs the Secretary of Energy and the Director of the National Science Foundation to coordinate cross-cutting research and development activities that advance both agencies’ mission priorities. The bill requires the two agencies to formalize that coordination through a memorandum of understanding or similar interagency agreement and to use a competitive, merit-reviewed process that can include federal agencies, national laboratories, universities, nonprofit institutions, and other appropriate entities.
The bill identifies a broad set of collaboration areas, including plasma science, fusion, biological and computational science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, quantum information science, energy and materials science, advanced manufacturing, microelectronics, and advanced physics. It also encourages shared research infrastructure, secure data-sharing capabilities, and education and workforce initiatives such as internships, fellowships, student programming, and professional development for educators and researchers. The agencies must also report to Congress within two years on coordination, technical capabilities, research achievements, future opportunities, and whether the collaboration should continue.
The bill would not create a new standalone program so much as it would formalize and expand interagency coordination between DOE and NSF, affecting how federal research and development funds and activities are organized and awarded. It authorizes reimbursable agreements and collaboration with other federal agencies, and it requires that the joint activities comply with federal research security requirements under the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act. The practical effect would be to strengthen statutory support for joint federal research efforts, especially in advanced science and technology fields, while leaving implementation details to the agencies through an interagency agreement.
The available legislative history suggests generally favorable sentiment. The bill passed the House of Representatives on March 24, 2025, indicating support for the concept of closer DOE-NSF coordination. No committee transcript or recorded vote details are provided here, but the bill’s structure and broad research agenda suggest it was framed as a bipartisan, pro-science measure focused on innovation, competitiveness, and workforce development.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials, but potential areas of debate include the scope of DOE-NSF collaboration, how competitive merit review would be administered, and how research security requirements would be balanced against open collaboration and data sharing. Stakeholders likely to care most include federal research agencies, national laboratories, universities, nonprofit research institutions, and policymakers focused on energy, AI, quantum computing, microelectronics, and STEM workforce development.