DOE Office of Science Locks In $8.4B with Computing Surge
March 3, 2026 · 2 min read
Jared Klein
The Department of Energy's Office of Science secured $8.4 billion in the FY2026 spending package signed into law in January — a nearly 2% increase over FY2025 that flatly rejects the Trump administration's proposed 14% reduction.
The enacted budget supports over 25,000 researchers and students across more than 300 institutions and all 17 DOE national laboratories.
Computing Research Gets a 10% Boost
Within the $8.4 billion allocation, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program received $1.12 billion — a 9.8% increase from the $1.02 billion enacted in FY2025. The computing research surge reflects bipartisan recognition that high-performance computing and AI infrastructure are critical to U.S. scientific competitiveness.
ASCR funds the nation's leading supercomputing facilities, including the exascale systems at Oak Ridge and Argonne National Labs that underpin everything from climate modeling to drug discovery. The budget increase positions these facilities to absorb growing demand from AI-driven research workflows.
What Survived — and What Took a Hit
DOE's nondefense portfolio of $16.78 billion preserves funding for energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric grid protection, and fundamental research in physics, chemistry, and biology. All six Office of Science program offices — from Basic Energy Sciences to Biological and Environmental Research — maintained operational funding.
ARPA-E took a sharper cut, falling to approximately $350 million, a 24% reduction from FY2025. But even that is far less severe than the 57% slash the White House requested. ARPA-E still plans to release up to four new focused solicitations in FY2026.
Where Researchers Should Look
The DOE Office of Science's FY2026 continuation grant solicitation (DE-FOA-0003600) is active, covering all six program offices. The ASCR computing boost makes this a particularly strong year for proposals involving computational science, quantum information, and AI-driven research methodologies.
Granted tracks open DOE solicitations across all program offices. For in-depth coverage of federal research funding trends, see the Granted blog.