NSF Just Did Something Important

Last week, NSF announced $1.5 billion for the NSF X-Labs initiative — independent, mission-driven research teams pursuing platform technologies that traditional institutions aren’t built to tackle. The first two topics are Scientific Instrumentation for Sensing and Imaging, and Quantum Systems: Interconnects and Integrated Photonics.A few years ago, Caleb Watney at IFP published a high-level proposal for exactly this kind of program. He called them X-Labs and described four basic award types. Th...