GENESIS MISSION: Harder Calls on NIH to Join Initiative to Build AI-Enabled Research Infrastructure

Partnership would connect scientists, AI systems, and federal datasets under one platform to accelerate new cures

Harder also calling for congressional briefing on additional resources needed for NIH’s partnership with the Genesis Mission

WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Josh Harder (CA-09) called on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to partner with the Genesis Mission, a new federal research initiative designed to speed up breakthrough science. In a letter sent to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, Harder urged the Administration to immediately develop plans to bring the nation’s top science agency into the public-private partnership.

The Genesis Mission is the most ambitious public-private partnership in decades:

• Led by the Department of Energy, (DOE) and its 17 National Laboratories, the initiative is working to connect the nation’s researchers, supercomputers, experimental facilities, and federal datasets through a single integrated AI platform.
• The Genesis Mission aims to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering using AI to advance discovery science, energy dominance, and national security. 
• However, the initiative does not currently include the NIH, which is the nation’s largest non-defense research-and-development spender and top biomedical science agency.

“The Genesis Mission represents a generational opportunity to harness AI to dramatically increase the productivity and impact of American research and innovation, and secure America's global technological leadership,” wrote Rep. Harder in the letter. “Including NIH in the Mission would extend those gains directly to patients – bringing lifesaving drugs to market faster and reducing the cost of developing and delivering new therapies. I stand ready to work with your offices to facilitate a partnership with NIH that accelerates drug discovery, lowers the cost of cures for American patients, and delivers on the Mission's promise to double U.S. research productivity within a decade.”

Harder’s letter makes it clear that the NIH needs a seat at the Genesis Mission table:

• Faster Cures for Patients – Partnering with the NIH would pair the agency’s significant biomedical datasets with the Genesis Mission’s AI, supercomputing, and experimental infrastructure to accelerate drug discovery, lower development costs, and bring lifesaving treatments to patients faster.
• Health-Focused AI Research Agenda – This expanded partnership would enhance the Genesis Mission’s existing work to scale up biotechnology development and ensure biomedical breakthroughs and new cures are prioritized alongside energy and defense goals.
• Congressional Support– Harder also called for a briefing on any funding and authorization needs that would ensure that the NIH’s participation in the initiative did not divert resources away from its other critical research.

Read the full letter here.

Harder is also leading bipartisan, landmark legislation to invest in higher-risk, higher-reward research at the NIH by creating a new, four-part funding series at the agency dedicated to foundational discovery, toolbuilding, biomedical regranting, and new institution seeding. Harder also serves as Chair of the bipartisan Build America Caucus, which was founded to pass pro-growth policies across infrastructure, energy, housing, health care, and technology.

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