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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 11 (Friday, January 17, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5872-5873]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-01161]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Notice of Request for Information (RFI) on Autonomous 
Experimentation Platforms from Material Genome Initiative

AGENCY: Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies, Department of 
Energy.

ACTION: Request for information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: On behalf of the Material Genome Initiative (MGI), the 
Department of Energy (DOE) seeks public comment on autonomous 
experimentation platforms to inform implementation of the MGI 
Challenges and Autonomous Materials Innovation Infrastructure (AMII).

DATES: Responses to the RFI are requested by March 21, 2025.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may submit comments electronically to 
[email protected] and include ``MGI RFI'' in the subject line of the email.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Further questions may be addressed to 
Charles Yang through [email protected] or (202) 586-6116.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    This is an RFI issued by DOE in support of the Material Genome 
Initiative (MGI) that seeks public input to inform interagency 
coordination around Autonomous Experimentation (AE) platform research, 
development, capabilities, and infrastructure. This input will support 
the efforts of the recently announced MGI Challenges that aim to help 
unify and promote adoption of the Materials Innovation Infrastructure--
through the expansion and integration of capabilities including 
autonomy, artificial intelligence, and robotics--to realize solutions 
to challenges of national interest.\1\ MGI is a Federal multi-agency 
initiative for discovering, manufacturing, and deploying advanced 
materials and supporting U.S. institutions in the adoption of methods 
for accelerating materials development, with over 15 agency 
participants.
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    \1\ https://www.mgi.gov/2024-materials-genome-initiative-mgi-challenges.
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    For this RFI, MGI seeks input from stakeholders across the entire 
materials innovation ecosystem including but not limited to:

 Academic and federally funded research and development centers
 For-profit and non-profit AI developers
 Consortia, public/private partnerships, and industry groups 
interested in AE
 Scientific equipment manufacturers
 Robotics/automation manufacturers and developers
 Startups and investors
 Scientific workforce and education organizations
 Think tanks and science policy organizations
 And other interested entities

II. Purpose

    Autonomous experimentation (AE) is defined in the MGI Workshop 
Report on Autonomous Materials Innovation Infrastructure \2\ as ``the 
coupling of automated experimentation and in situ or in line analysis 
of results, with artificial intelligence (AI) to direct experiments in 
rapid, closed-loops.'' The report identifies several technological 
advances coupled to existing techniques that need to be integrated to 
realize AE:
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    \2\ https://www.mgi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/MGI_Autonomous_Materials_Innovation_Infrastructure_Workshop_Report.pdf.
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    (1) Laboratory automation, enabling robots to carry out the 
autonomous experimental tasks (Including transfer between instruments/
experimental stations) prescribed by the decision algorithms.
    (2) Automated in-line & in situ sensing, characterization, and 
analysis capabilities to enable closed-loop autonomous experimentation.
    (3) Improved AI and autonomous experimentation decision methods for 
materials that enable faster and better R&D.
    (4) Improved software for hardware automation, sensing and 
autonomous experimentation.
    MGI announced five challenges to help unify and accelerate adoption 
of Materials Innovation Infrastructure to build scientific 
infrastructure to address issues national interest.\3\ These challenges 
build off several recent announcements from across the U.S. Government 
in support of AE systems, including funding for AE for semiconductor 
materials \4\ from the CHIPS office in NIST, a National Science 
Foundation (NSF) solicitation for material discovery,\5\ and an ARPA-E 
funding opportunity for catalyst discovery with AE.\6\ This RFI is not 
a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) or Funding Opportunity 
Announcement (FOA).
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    \3\ https://www.mgi.gov/2024-materials-genome-initiative-mgi-challenges.
    \4\ https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2024/10/30/CHIPS%20CARISSMA%20NOFO.pdf.
    \5\ https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/nsf25508.pdf?VersionId=m260vPkM22sxSgrP2Kawqho5qTCDdHYD.
    \6\ https://arpa-e.energy.gov/technologies/programs/catalchem-e.
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    This RFI seeks public input on existing research infrastructure as 
well as opportunities and challenges to leverage autonomous 
experimentation systems to realize the MGI Challenges. This RFI also 
seeks input on steps the MGI and the U.S. Government can take to 
support a broader research and development (R&D) ecosystem for 
autonomous experimentation systems.

III. Questions

1. MGI Challenges

    For any of the following MGI challenges, respondents may provide 
input on any number or all of the following topics:
     Identify and map existing autonomous experimentation 
infrastructure suitable to addressing the MGI challenges;
     Describe how autonomous experimentation systems should be 
designed and integrated to accomplish MGI challenges;
     Describe promising technical approaches to addressing a 
particular challenge and how AE systems can be designed to accelerate 
progress in those approaches;
     Describe obstacles to leveraging autonomous 
experimentation systems specific to a given MGI challenge that will 
need to be addressed.
    Clearly indicate which challenge is being responded to. Further 
details on the challenges can be found here.\7\ One response may 
respond to multiple challenges.
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    \7\ https://www.mgi.gov/2024-materials-genome-initiative-mgi-challenges.

(a) MGI Challenge: Point of Care Tissue-Mimetic Materials for 
Biomedical Devices and Implants
(b) MGI Challenge: Agile Manufacturing of Affordable Multi-Functional 
Composites
(c) MGI Challenge: Quantum Position, Navigation, and Timing on a Chip
(d) MGI Challenge: High Performance, Low Carbon Cementitious Materials
(e) MGI Challenge: Sustainable Materials Design for Semiconductor 
Applications

2. Partnerships and Consortium

    (a) How should the Material Genome Initiative (MGI) and the U.S.

[[Page 5873]]

Government more broadly partner with industry, academia, and other 
stakeholders to realize autonomous experimentation platforms? Are there 
specific models that should be considered?
    (b) What role can a public-private consortium play in supporting 
the development of autonomous experimentation? How should a consortium 
be structured and who should be involved?
    (c) What are the non-technical barriers to realizing the broad 
impact of AE that partnerships and consortia can address? For example, 
standards development, experimental equipment integration, etc.
    (d) How can MGI and the U.S. Government more broadly work with the 
affected communities to support the development of AE systems for 
science? How can MGI and the U.S. Government work with private industry 
to support technology transition of innovations developed by the 
community?

3. Workforce

    (a) How can the MGI agencies support the equitable development of 
an AI-ready scientific workforce, with the skills and knowledge needed 
to work with, operate, and leverage autonomous experimentation 
platforms?
    (b) How do the workforce skills and knowledge needed to realize 
autonomous experimentation systems as a new scientific infrastructure 
overlap with other valuable scientific and engineering discipline 
needs?

4. Scientific Equipment, Automation, and Software Interfaces

    (a) What types of robotic automation hardware and software are most 
applicable for scientific autonomous experimentation systems?
    (b) What are obstacles and challenges to integrating robotic 
automation with scientific equipment? What role can software 
Application Programming Interface (API) standards play in developing 
autonomous experimentation systems? How can MGI and the U.S. Government 
work with private industry, including equipment manufacturers and 
autonomy developers, to develop API standards for the industry and 
accelerate adoption and development of AE systems?

IV. Response Guidelines

    Commenters are welcome to comment on any question. RFI responses 
shall include:
    1. RFI title;
    2. Name(s), phone number(s), and email address(es) for the 
principal point(s) of contact;
    3. Institution or organization affiliation and postal address; and
    4. Clear indication of the specific question(s) to which you are 
responding.
    Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to 
[email protected] with the subject line ``MGI RFI'' no later than 5 p.m. 
(ET) on March 21, 2025. Responses must be provided as attachments to an 
email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25 
MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses 
must be provided as a Microsoft Word (*.docx) or Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) 
attachment to the email and should be no more than 15 pages in length, 
12-point font, 1-inch margins. Only electronic responses will be 
accepted. Only one response per individual or organization will be 
accepted.
    A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment 
to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed.

Confidential Business Information

    Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to 
structure future programs and/or otherwise be made available to the 
public, respondents are strongly advised NOT to include any information 
in their responses that might be considered business sensitive, 
proprietary, or otherwise confidential.
    Pursuant to 10 CFR 1004.11, any person submitting information that 
he or she believes to be confidential and exempt by law from public 
disclosure should submit via email two well-marked copies: one copy of 
the document marked ``confidential'' including all the information 
believed to be confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-
confidential'' with the information believed to be confidential 
deleted. Failure to comply with these marking requirements may result 
in the disclosure of the unmarked information under the Freedom of 
Information Act or otherwise. The U.S. Government is not liable for the 
disclosure or use of unmarked information and may use or disclose such 
information for any purpose. If your response contains confidential, 
proprietary, or privileged information, you must include a cover sheet 
marked as follows identifying the specific pages containing 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information.

Notice of Restriction on Disclosure and Use of Data

    Pages [list applicable pages] of this response may contain 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information that is exempt 
from public disclosure. Such information shall be used or disclosed 
only for the purposes described in this RFI. The Government may use or 
disclose any information that is not appropriately marked or otherwise 
restricted, regardless of source.
    In addition, (1) the header and footer of every page that contains 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information must be marked as 
follows: ``Contains, Confidential, Proprietary, or Privileged 
Information Exempt from Public Disclosure'' and (2) every line and 
paragraph containing proprietary, privileged, or trade secret 
information must be clearly marked with [[double brackets]] or 
highlighting. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to 
[email protected].

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on January 13, 
2025, by Helena Fu, Director, Office of Critical and Emerging 
Technologies, pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary of 
Energy. That document with the original signature and date is 
maintained by DOE. For administrative purposes only, and in compliance 
with requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, the 
undersigned DOE Federal Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to 
sign and submit the document in electronic format for publication, as 
an official document of the Department of Energy. This administrative 
process in no way alters the legal effect of this document upon 
publication in the Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on January 14, 2025.
Jennifer Hartzell,
Alternate Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2025-01161 Filed 1-16-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
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