NSF Names Founding Partners for X-Labs Consortium, With Occam Foundry and Florida Quantum Center Among Them

Insider Brief

• The U.S. National Science Foundation has named the initial founding partners of its new NSF X-Labs Consortium, which it says represents over $300 million in commitments to support X-Labs teams with floor space, instrument access and direct support.
• Partners named so far include the Astera Institute, Ginkgo Bioworks, Tom Secunda and the Secunda Family Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Matt Cimaglia with Occam Foundry, and the Florida Quantum Center.
• The consortium backs NSF X-Labs, the $1.5 billion, decade-long program funding independent teams of researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs through milestone-based awards, with quantum systems among its first topics.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has put names to the founding partners of its new NSF X-Labs Consortium, the private-sector and philanthropic backbone for the agency’s $1.5 billion X-Labs initiative. In a post on X, NSF thanked the Astera Institute, Ginkgo Bioworks, Tom Secunda at the Secunda Family Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and other national philanthropic partners, along with Matt Cimaglia with Occam Foundry and Florida Quantum Center, as the initial group that will help X-Labs stand up what the agency calls a new generation of independent research organizations.