Boston Robotic Lab Slated for NSF X-Labs Under Ginkgo Pledge

Ginkgo Bioworks announced (DNA ) on Thursday, 8 oktober 2026, that it will provide in-kind access to its autonomous laboratory in Boston to research teams participating in the National Science Foundation’s X-Labs program, contributing cloud lab time and protein testing services to the $1.5 billion, decade-long federal initiative.

The company’s support was announced the same day by Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, at the Science: A New Golden Age Summit in Washington, D.C. According to a White House fact sheet, the summit launched initiatives representing over $6 billion in investments across the federal government, industry, academia, and philanthropy, including an X-Labs Consortium backed by over $310 million in industry and philanthropic commitments to provide federally funded X-Labs teams with advanced scientific instrumentation and facility space.

Cloud Lab Time and Protein Testing

Under the contribution, NSF X-Labs teams will receive cloud lab time on Ginkgo’s autonomous lab, giving researchers remote access to robotic laboratory infrastructure to design, run, and analyze experiments. Ginkgo will also offer the teams its protein testing services, which the company says enable researchers to rapidly express and characterize protein designs, including designs generated by artificial intelligence models, without building out their own wet lab capacity.

According to the company, its Boston lab runs on Reconfigurable Automation Carts, modular robots that combine robotic arms, maglev sample transport, and Catalyst software to run high-mix laboratory work around the clock. Researchers access the lab remotely through Ginkgo Cloud Lab, which provides a fleet of more than 70 instruments spanning sample preparation, liquid handling, analytical readouts, storage, and incubation.

The arrangement extends an existing relationship between Ginkgo and the agency. Ginkgo already works with NSF through the Programmable Cloud Laboratories Test Bed program, where it is expected to provide Reconfigurable Automation Carts and software to cloud lab nodes at Caltech, the University of Maryland, and Northwestern University.

“Autonomous labs are a key part of the U.S. government’s vision for a golden age of American science, and we’re proud to put our autonomous lab to work for NSF X-Labs teams,” said Jason Kelly, Ginkgo’s co-founder and CEO. Robotic labs are key to competing with China and to improving the reproducibility and output of U.S. science, Kelly said, adding that programs like X-Labs show how quickly researchers can move when they have access to robotic labs.

The X-Labs Consortium and Program Structure

The National Science Foundation’s own October 8 announcement states that the NSF X-Labs Consortium’s initial founding partners represent over $300 million in commitments, supporting teams with floor space, instrument access, and direct support. The founding partners include research institutions, advanced computing centers, philanthropy, and industry, providing resources such as physical space, scientific instruments and infrastructure, and expertise. NSF also said it will soon release, alongside industry and philanthropic partners, a funding opportunity tied to the NSF Programmable Cloud Laboratories Network announced in juli 2026, focused on what it calls Super Intelligence-Native Instruments, with an anticipated investment of up to $75 million over the next five years.

The White House fact sheet states that NSF and the Department of Energy separately announced an investment of over $100 million in super-intelligence-enabled scientific instrumentation and autonomous laboratories, following NSF’s July announcement of a $400 million investment in programmable cloud labs. The summit built on Science: A New Golden Age, a report Kratsios authored for President Donald Trump, according to the fact sheet.

NSF first announced the X-Labs initiative on 14 mei 2026, committing $1.5 billion over the following decade to independent teams of researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs pursuing milestone-based federal funding to solve specific scientific challenges. The first round of funding opportunities invited proposals on two topics: Scientific Instrumentation for Sensing and Imaging, and Quantum Systems: Interconnects and Integrated Photonics. In september 2026, NSF added three more topics: Artificial Intelligence for Physical Systems, Sequence to Function, and Computation at the Limit of Physics, according to the NSF X-Labs program page.

The initiative is led by NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships and was initially previewed under the name Tech Labs, beginning with a december 2025 request for information. NSF issued the X-Labs topics and funding opportunities as an Other Transactions Agreement Solutions Offering, a mechanism that lets the agency release multiple opportunities in specific science and technology topic areas, and the program page states that NSF anticipates significant investment in 2026 featuring large, multiyear awards for selected teams. At the May launch, Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director, said the initial investment of up to $1.5 billion in independent, milestone-driven research teams was intended to create the conditions for transformative breakthroughs.

Ginkgo said researchers interested in its autonomous lab capabilities can submit protocols at cloud.ginkgo.bio. NSF has scheduled an 14 oktober 2026, question-and-answer webinar for the Artificial Intelligence for Physical Systems topic.